This is excellent.

My father got dementia in his early 80's and denied there was a problem. Mom was also in denial so by the time she was finally able to admit that my dad had dementia, he was already shitting himself. She didn't want to change how she lived. She would just leave him sitting alone in a room while she went to the casino as usual.

Every time I popped in to check on them, she was gone and he was alone. Sometimes the lights would be out. We (the kids) all confronted her about it but it did no good. He eventually got pneumonia and had to be hospitalised and we (the kids) worked with the staff to place him in a nursing home while mom argued that she could take care of him (which she obviously couldn't).

There is a tipping point (as related in this video) where you go from being able to make decisions to not being able to make decisions and from an observer's standpoint it's pretty sudden if you're hiding your symptoms or someone else is hiding them for you.

Once that point is reached you are no longer afraid of what's happening to you. Your body is still alive and what's left of your brain reacts to stimuli with old ingrained habits and behaviours. Sometimes there are brief moments of lucidity.

I know that I will probably fall victim to this in my early 80's so I've made sure my finances will be out of my hands by then. The question is whether or not to bail when I start to recognise symptoms. If I wait too long I won't be able to make the decision. Although the thought isn't pleasant it's probably better to bail as soon as I get the diagnosis. Get all my affairs in order and make a clean exit.

This is 12 years old. Pretty amazing that after this, he ended up 'taking death's arm' the natural way.