Yes, Fred is Dead

Bev has been quite confused lately, especially in the evenings when she is experiencing her typical Alzheimer's-related "sundowning." Yesterday, she phoned Jim wondering if he had seen Fred recently. (And for any of you who do not know, Jim's dad, Fred, was killed in a truck-pedestrian accident in 2004.) Jim gingerly explained to his mother that Fred has been dead for over four years. She became quite angry, but not for the reasons one might think. Bev was upset that "no one bothered to tell her that Fred had been killed." She was not the least bit disturbed that her husband was dead. Only that, in her world of dementia, we purposely kept her in the dark about it and did not update her regarding family matters. Sigh.