Every once in a while something happens that forcibly reminds you how far your loved one has declined.

This week it was Christmas cards.

It surprised me because he knew Christmas was coming and that we had to get cards (and money to put in them for his grandkids). He was obsessed until I showed him the envelope from the bank with the appropriate funds for card stuffing.

He knew we needed Christmas cards, he knew we needed money, he knew we needed addresses. So when I had everything ready, I sat him at the table to sign the cards from Grandpa as I stepped away to do other things.

He didn’t know what to write on the cards.

He was so paranoid of messing up he came out to check five separate times to ensure he just had to write the word Grandpa. There were only eight cards.

It blindsided me a bit when he remembered all the pertinent details of the task except for perhaps (in my brain at least) the simplest.

More proof that dementia moves in mysterious ways.