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You don't. You employ Therapeutic Lying. Tell them that their spouse is on a business trip, or is visiting a relative. If you tell them that their spouse has died, it will hurt them. Then, they will forget. Then, if you keep re-telling them, all you will do is to keep hurting them over and over. Our job is to keep them safe and happy.
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Reply to NinjaWarrior3
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You don't. Just say he's at work or at the store. She will forget and keep asking and you keep repeating the same thing over and over as many times as needed.
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Reply to LakeErie
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Lookingforhappy: With love.
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Reply to Llamalover47
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A friend had this same issue when her MIL got dementia. At first they told her that he was in Heaven. She’d be upset or in disbelief for an hour maybe. She’d forget, ask again, and it was the same reaction. Repeat.

So family got creative. Her late husband is “at work”. Or he had to go to the store. He’s running errands. Made it sound like he was one busy man!

She’d still ask 100x a day but this spared her being upset.
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Reply to LoopyLoo
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You don’t you just divert the question and talk about something else. There might come a time when they are more lucid and you can tell them.
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Reply to Sample
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My mother died four years ago and my father asks where she is all the time. He has Alzheimer’s disease and is in the later stages and I never tell him that she’s dead. I always say she’s on vacation or visiting her brother or playing bingo because those are the things she loved to do when she was alive.
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Reply to Mfanelli
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I'm the wife of a Stage 7 dementia patient who lives in a care facility. He knows me and speaks to me as best he can with sign language and facial expression (he has aphasia). We have an affectionate and loving relationship even now.

I would not want him to be told if I passed away. If he seemed to miss me, he'd be better off thinking that I was not there on that day but will be there to see him soon. Or to meet him soon, or something else that would leave him with hope. He has memory issues, and I doubt if he'd retain either the memory that I'd died or that I'd be there soon. But he remembers quite a bit about people visiting and will communicate about it; for instance, another resident's family member usually puts her purse on the table, and when she put it on a chair one day, he signed several times that she should put it on the table and smiled when she eventually did. So who knows what's going on in their brains. We can't.

What I'm saying is that things are bad enough already, so don't take away their hope. That's too cruel.
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Reply to Fawnby
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It depends on how far gone with dementia they are. If the person is at the stage where telling them means it will have to be continually repeated, the kindest thing is to not tell them. Telling them can cause serious setbacks in whatever level of ability and independence they still have.

I see in the comments that you've already told your father about your mother's passing. If he forgets it, don't remind him. If he forgets it and someone tells him again he will be hearing it for the first time.
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Reply to BurntCaregiver
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Lookingforhappy Aug 15, 2025
Thank you! It’s so great to have this support. After today I’ll know more about what he remembers and what he doesn’t. Good advice to not keep causing pain.
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Like you would if the person didn't have dementia. They deserve to know.
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Reply to funkygrandma59
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Lookingforhappy Aug 15, 2025
Amen! I did do that. I guess next…how do I help my dad process the news? We visited mom in the hospital. It’s so hard to know how he’s doing with the news.
thank you grandma!!!
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