Anonymous
Hugs, OP. Is it possible she was sick recently or has covid? My dad had a sharp decline last year when he had covid. No flu-like symptoms - no cough, no fever, no aches. But his dementia took a nosedive. He recovered, but a year later that "slide" is his new normal.

Yes I think this could be part of it. She had Covid in September (mild case) and noticeable but level decline after. Then 2 weeks ago more or less break with reality.

She thinks that some of the people in memory care used to work with her at her university (across the country). She also seems to have lost the ability to use a regular phone. And she is evidently wandering into other people’s rooms and leaving her things there oe taking theirs. I had a 20 min call with her this am and I could not understand a thing, although she is garrulous.

My mother, as I knew her, is gone. Two masters (Yale and Harvard); three fluent languages plus Latin/greek; always admired for her linguistic skills and memory—-she was a historian—and she can’t use a phone or figure out how to get dressed or understand a one step direction. And yet she also used the word superannuated in her incoherent conversation. It is fascinating and so sad.