Help Our Mother, Young-Onset Dementia
Donation protected
My mother was always the strongest person I knew in my life. She has always been the leader and always did everything she could for her family. Herself being a single child resulted in us not having a large extended network or large family growing up. She made sure that she was our rock, our support system, and for the many years that she was raising us as a single mother - she was our father too. We had everything we needed growing up and it was the woman working a full time job and then clocking into a part time job at night or weekends that taught us - "you can do anything with a little hard work".
Our world started to change in 2017, when we noticed signs of my mother forgetting things or becoming paranoid. And in 2018 our world's were turned upside down when my mother was diagnosed with Dementia of the Lewy Body. The quickest way to explain this form of dementia is like a rollercoaster. One day you are talking to the woman you know and the next day she is lost and unsure of who you are.
This has completely devastated my family. The only monarch we have ever known is wounded.
Imagine losing someone but the familiar face is right in front of you. She sounds like mom, she laughs like mom, she looks like mom but the mom you grew up with and have known your whole life isn't there. Her brain is broken and there are no tools in the toolbox to fix it. No treatment. No magic wand.
The decline was rapid and within a year we could no longer care for my mother. She required more attention and care than we could provide. Minutia tasks require prompting, reaction times of danger delayed, and the hallucinations so real they are confused with reality.
We had no other choice but to place her in a home. The next year would be a rollercoaster of events where multiple homes with shiny brochures and assuring directors treated my mother with neglect and one even discarding our mother in the middle of the night to a hospital citing - she's no longer our responsibility.
Today she is in a home where she is receiving the correct care and we are finally able to have a bit of trust. But proper care, a loving staff, and humanity comes at a cost. And now my family is out of financial resources.
Our mother is only 59, which excludes her from many financial aids and benefits. With heavy hearts we are now reaching out to our community and asking to please help us in keeping the strongest woman we know safe and with the proper care.
Our world started to change in 2017, when we noticed signs of my mother forgetting things or becoming paranoid. And in 2018 our world's were turned upside down when my mother was diagnosed with Dementia of the Lewy Body. The quickest way to explain this form of dementia is like a rollercoaster. One day you are talking to the woman you know and the next day she is lost and unsure of who you are.
This has completely devastated my family. The only monarch we have ever known is wounded.
Imagine losing someone but the familiar face is right in front of you. She sounds like mom, she laughs like mom, she looks like mom but the mom you grew up with and have known your whole life isn't there. Her brain is broken and there are no tools in the toolbox to fix it. No treatment. No magic wand.
The decline was rapid and within a year we could no longer care for my mother. She required more attention and care than we could provide. Minutia tasks require prompting, reaction times of danger delayed, and the hallucinations so real they are confused with reality.
We had no other choice but to place her in a home. The next year would be a rollercoaster of events where multiple homes with shiny brochures and assuring directors treated my mother with neglect and one even discarding our mother in the middle of the night to a hospital citing - she's no longer our responsibility.
Today she is in a home where she is receiving the correct care and we are finally able to have a bit of trust. But proper care, a loving staff, and humanity comes at a cost. And now my family is out of financial resources.
Our mother is only 59, which excludes her from many financial aids and benefits. With heavy hearts we are now reaching out to our community and asking to please help us in keeping the strongest woman we know safe and with the proper care.
Organizer and beneficiary
Vicente Vasquez
Organizer
Brooklyn, NY
Kathy Grant
Beneficiary
