Cathy - first you made me ROTFLMAO - then you made me cry. My mom's dementia didn't show up until she was 89 - and Alzheimer's wasn't diagnosed until she was 92, which we were told is unusually late. So I've decided to check out at 89 ~ ~ ~
For a while, I couldn't understand why my sweet Mom was getting so angry and why she eventually banned me, her only child, from her home. We had been sharing a sewing room during the winter for nearly 10 years, but I moved all my things out that afternoon, went back to my place, and fixed myself a large Manhattan! Within months, the schism was over, because she recognized that she needed help and called me. DH and I were only in AZ during the winter, so we helped her find a wonderful Assisted Living facility. She said it was the nicest place she'd ever lived in. 5 month later, she had to move to Skilled Nursing as her Alzheimer's progressed rapidly.
As it turned out, DH and I did not leave AZ at the end of that winter, because I realized that Mom's dementia was getting worse, and I wanted to have daily contact with her for as long as she knew who I was. She recognized me, DH & one particular friend who visited her frequently until the day she died, but she became more and more confused.