Dealing With Alzheimer's

          When my dad died i took on the responsibility of caring for my elderly mother, fortunately she was in good health and for six years or so this only entailed shopping, gardening, trips out ect and i was able to manage my life and work without too much trouble. When l reached 60 yrs i was able to take early retirement but this coincided with a marked deterioration in her mental abilities subsequently diagnosed as dementia, from then  on my life became a nightmare of worry, arguments and helplessness, l loved both my parents dearly and felt a great obligation to them, but dealing with my mam was the hardest thing i have ever undertaken, this continued for 2yrs until my health started to suffer through the stress, and being diagnosed with depression was able to get social services involved from then on things became much better and she actually enjoyed the daily visits from the nurses and the twice weekly trips to day centre which relieved the pressure of me so that i could cope in a positive way. However towards the end she started to roam and to become a danger to herself and her neighbours as she nearly caused a serious gas explosion. so i managed to get her into a local care home where i could visit every day but unfortunately she caught a urinary infection which resulted in a hospital admission where she  passed away.  I miss her dearly and wonder if i could have done things differently  but never regret our times together even when things were pretty bad, as the experience of caring helped me become a more understanding person.