My MIL has advanced Dementia and now lives in a residential care home specifically for those who have this kind of disorder. But for 4 years she was cared for by my wife and her siblings with occasional help from myself and one thing we did was to keep a journal of the often random things she said so we could repeat them to her to see if they triggered memories or associations.
As her condition worsened she became verbally and physically inappropriate with men and started mentioning events from her relationships, which initially seemed outlandish until she mentioned one with her oldest daughter present who confirmed it was true. Thereafter I kept a separate journal of these claims on the advice of her Neuro support worker, who was concerned that she was identifying people by name.
MIL has stated that she was in love with her Father and began a sexual relationship with him aged 7 which they maintained until his death 40 years later. Her Aunt and Uncle could not have children and they ‘borrowed’ her for holidays where she had a sexual relationship with her Aunt. She married her 1st husband who was bi-sexual, (this was in the late 60s), they had threesomes with 2 of his friends before graduating to sex parties where she would indulge 4 or 5 men.
She was fairly certain that 3 of her first 4 children were her Dad’s and she then married her second husband, cheated on him for almost all of her marriage before divorcing to set up home with a much younger third husband. Each morning she woke her daughters up for school naked and hung her used knickers on her son’s bedroom doors to “save on laundry”.
In the presence of her daughter and my sister in law, she lamented that none of the younger girls put out for their Dad and she had hoped that at least 1 would get groomed or abducted. Now she is in care I have a dilemma; only the oldest sister knows about the second journal so do I let the others read it?
