Alzheimer’s causes behavior that is hard to explain.

From time to time, I have mentioned some unusual (strange?) things that Kate does. I never do so with the intent of making fun but simply to report some of the things I am sure other caregivers are observing. It is also a way of giving a truer picture of what our lives are like. Thankfully, I am usually reporting more positive and normal kinds of things we are doing.

Yesterday I noted that I hadn’t found a pair of pants that she was wearing the previous day. They were somewhat nicer than her everyday pants from LL Bean. I try to keep them separate from the rest of her clothes so that she will have something appropriate to wear for more special occasions. My only update today is to say that I still haven’t found them. I am sure I will eventually. That is what usually happens. I just don’t know when.

I’ve also mentioned that she sometimes takes various things with her when we go out in the car. Yesterday when we were leaving for Barnes & Noble, she picked up 2 baseball caps she wears when working in the yard and an apron. She just threw them in the backseat of the car. That’s where they remain.

Today as we were leaving for lunch, she was carrying an extra pair of shoes and two pair of socks. I noticed that the shoes were brown and not the black ones I had put out for her. I asked if she would like the black ones. She said she would get them later. I walked back to our bedroom to get something else and picked up the shoes and brought them back to her. She put them on. Then we walked to the car. She was now carrying the shoes she had just taken off as well as the other ones she had in her hand. She brought them as well as the socks to the car. When I return home to relieve the sitter, I will take them as well as the baseball caps and apron and put them back where she got them.

I have to believe there was some signal in her brain that led to her thinking she should take them with her. I’ll never really know.