How long do you play along with wild stories?

Dealing with those wild stories for me were sometimes infuriating. It's all part of the disease process. You just have to go along with the process of the confabulation of stories because the brain is broken. It is a sad thing to witness. If a story brings them comfort, don't try to correct them. It's their memory and their truth. The problem isn't them. I realized the problem of me getting irritated by some of these stories and at the same time they can funny as heck. I had a client years ago who tried to cook split pea soup and burned it. Her neighbor from across the hall smelled it. It happened on a Saturday. I only worked for Miss Lady on weekdays. She told the neighbor I burned up the pea soup. I wasn't nowhere to be found. I was mildly irritated when the neighbor told me the story when I returned to work that Monday, but now as I look back on it, this was some sort of cognitive mishap going on at the time. It is no point in arguing with them because it will only cause your blood pressure to rise and they will forget about what it was all about in a New York minute while you are left still fuming.

My response to this sort of thing is usually the same - you cannot argue a broken brain in to believing something different than what they believe. You tell her the picture of her husband is not her father, but your father. You get frustrated and it makes her angry...or on a better day makes her realize she's losing her memory.

It's very possible her mind is back many years ago and remembers her husband as a young man. Maybe she sees this older picture and her brain goes to father. Doesn't really matter. She already doesn't remember exactly how the guy in the picture is related to her, but does know that he is. If her brain says it's her dad, then go with it. What does it hurt.