Alzheimer's & Parkinson's: A Fate Worse Than Death, Part 1

At the end of January 2004 my Mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's in the early stages. I knew something was wrong after I started my new job and Mom would stop by everyday to visit. I started in September and Mom was just fine but, by October I started to see a decline in her memory.  Then one day I got a phone call from Mom, which was very rare, asking me if I could loan her some money to pay off a bounced check. Of course I said yes. When I went down to give her the money, we sat and chatted for awhile and she finally said she was thinking of filing bankruptcy. I asked her why, and she said because a family member owed her money. I asked how much, and she told me. After I left I called another family member and told them what Mom had said. This family member proceeded to go over to Mom's and find out what was going on. Needless to say, the family member they took all of her bills and credit card bills and called me a few days later to tell me that the amount Mom had said that she was in debt was not correct. Mom's credit card bills added up to over $26,000 and she had nothing in her apartment to show that she spent that much money, plus the younger family member kept all of the receipts. After that Mom would not answer the phone, she would call you back if you left a message. She was be harassed by credit card companies. The worse thing about this is my Mother always managed money beautifully. We found out that she had been taking the checks you get from the credit card company and just writing them out when ever she or the other family member needed money.