We had a great time at the Toronto Zoo on Friday. It was a gorgeous day and I finally got to see the Tundra exhibit – yay for polar bears! Julie was WAY more interested in looking at the other kids and not so interested in the animals… except for the monkeys – she loved them!

On Saturday, something happened that made us realize that Oma has deteriorated even more to the point now that she will need to be with someone all the time when she’s awake. Mom had a fitness class, so she was gone from the house for 1 hour. My dad was home so Oma wasn’t there by herself. My brother Thom was in the dragonboat races out of town, but for some reason Oma thought they were in town. She went to ask my dad several times if he could take her there and he kept telling her the races were out of town, but she kept forgetting and thought they were in town.

My mom came home from her fitness class and was going to take Oma to go pick up a prescription and Oma was nowhere to be found. Dad said he hadn’t seen her in awhile, but thought she just went to lie down. Mom looked everywhere, but no Oma. She also noticed that her purse and cane were missing, so Oma must have left. My dad said he didn’t see a vehicle come, so they had no idea if she just wandered off or what happened.

Just when my mom was getting hysterical and thinking she may have to call the police, Oma came home and she was crying. She told my mom that she wanted to go see Thom in the races and started walking to the spot she thought the race was. We do have dragonboat races there every June, but Oma did not understand that Thom was in a race out of town. We have no idea how far she walked before she turned around. She was very upset that she couldn’t find Thom.

Now we don’t know what to do because we can’t have Oma wandering off. She could get mugged or something… I’m sure there are people out there that prey on the elderly because they can’t defend themselves. And the area she was walking in is not the best area.

My mom doesn’t know what to do because now she feels like she can never leave Oma and she obviously has to leave her to go to work. Luckily, there is a support group here in town for caregivers of people with Alzheimer’s/dementia, so my mom is going to go to the next gathering and I really hope she gets some good advice and support there.