What AM I Going To Do?

I made the long trip down to the assisted living center this past Saturday morning to spend the day with my Grandmother. When I got there the staff was setting up for the annual Thanksgiving dinner and I briefly met and spoke with the new Director- seems like a nice enough lady. When I met my Grandmother in the hallway she was carrying a few items in her hands and smelling slightly like poop… I knew instantly that this was going to be a long day. I asked her why she was carrying around in her hands the toothpaste tube, the sink drain plug, a bottle of lotion and her wallet…. She said that she had “found them” and she wanted to “show somebody”. I lead her back to the apartment… only to be greeted by more of the stench… I proceeded to put those few things back in their place and then started to look for the source of the “stench”… I really could not find anything in the bathroom or the bedroom- so it had to be her. I did find a huge wet spot on the carpet in front of her dresser- that turned out to be urine. I do not want to go into the gory details of my ugly day spent cleaning up my Grandmother and her apartment… and a frantic cleaning at that for 2 long hours before the noon Thanksgiving dinner! But, basically what it boils down to is that my Grandmother cannot seem to remember what to do after she uses the bathroom… hence, the stench. I am not sure how to explain the 24” diameter wet spot in the carpet unless she crouched there to pee thinking it was the toilet? Who knows… what I do know is that when I confronted her about the spot she tried to blame on those “other” people who come in here and use the bathroom… or “that man who runs down the hall” and takes her money and a whiz at the same time…? I just smiled and told her how much I loved her. And then I proceeded to ask her the touchy subject of her consistent “mishaps” with peeing or pooping… she just bawled. I explained to her that it was okay to do it… just call for help right when it happens so she won’t forget about it and leave it. Lord only knows if she will remember any thing I told her that day. As much as I scrubbed the carpet, the furniture, the bathroom, and her you would hope she would remember… but, again, probably not! And I even washed a load of dirty clothes too…
The turkey dinner was really good… and she proceeded to eat the entire meal with her fingers… I tried countless times to give her the fork and she would just stare at it as if she had no idea what it was for. But, she did eat the entire plate of food and dessert- with her fingers though…
After dinner, we did a little shopping at wal-mart as quickly as possible… she had a ball being out of the apartment but, she kept asking me about where we were… she could not remember the store or the town we were in…
I got her back to the apartment, put up her purchases, checked her wallet (which did not have all the money stolen as she informed several times earlier in the week), and said my goodbyes…Needless to say, I have a LOT to think about…