Coming...and going.

Okaasan managed to give us new confusions last night.


I got home just after 6 pm.
Okaasan's shoes were in the entrance hall, facing the step where she'd stepped out of them.
Yujiro was upstairs half way down his first beer after work.
He and I chatted in front of the Tv a while.
Then I went downstairs to throw together dinner..."Okaasan's home isn't she?" I asked him..."Yes, she said she'd just got home just before I came back" he said.


Ok. Great. Everyone home. Start making dinner.


In the kitchen I did a quick "hello" to Okaasan in her room before I started dinner prepping. Okaasan was in her clothes and fussing around with bag and scarf.


Then she appeared in the kitchen...heading for the door.....handbag and scarf all set.


"Err? Are you going out again? I thought you just came back?"
"Just came back? No, I haven't been out yet....I'm just going to the Seicomart, I'll be back soon....."
"Err...dinner is in 30 mins. I thought you'd been out already!"
"Me? no.....I haven't been out yet today.."


And off she went. Again? Or for the first time?
We don't know. And she doesn't either.
This is the amazing thing about dementia sufferers: they can tell you something with such confidence that you don't suspect it isn't true. It isn't a lie, it isn't necessarily that they don't remember - more that they say what is expected or what people usually say in a given situation.


So when Yujiro got home Okaasan told him she too had just got home...and when she saw me 30 mins later she told me...I'm just going out, haven't been out all day.


I don't think she would have the energy to go out twice, so I'm guessing the first statement was not true...but the second was. Although...her shoes were in the entrance hall facing the "in" direction....


Confused? We all are.