My name is Simona. My mom is 81 and has been diagnosed with vascular dementia, though the diagnosis was made without thorough analysis. For the past two years, my sisters and I have been doing our best to care for her physically, but her mind is slowly fading. These days, there are more moments when she can’t remember clearly, and the few sparks of clarity are becoming rarer.
I find the Southern European system for dealing with these issues to be the worst possible. There is a severe lack of information, from hospitals to specialized caregivers. Sometimes, it feels like the medications are just palliative, offering a less bitter pill for onlookers to swallow. The reality is that services and basic information on how to handle day-to-day challenges are almost nonexistent.
That’s why I want to use this space as a journal to share my experience and create a forum area where people can compare their lives, discuss solutions, and address the problems that aging brings. I hope this can become a small corner of relief for those who don’t know what to do when life becomes unbearable with so many challenges, especially when society seems to have forgotten our precious parents, grandparents, and elderly relatives.