Mom holds court nowadays. There is no back and forth conversation. The topic always goes to when she was a girl. These dialogs go on for as long as her audience will listen. She seems to speak in a loop.
Might be time to have her doctor evaluate her. Talking about her childhood repetitively could be a sign of something, but there are so many possibilities, from minor things like vitamin imbalance all the way up to memory loss and on to dementia.
Another thought: how is her hearing? It's easy to "hold court" without actually listening to what other people say, whereas having a regular conversation is very hard, especially if you don't want to admit you can't hear what people are saying. Does she hear, understand, and modify her dialog if people ask her questions about her childhood or is she just reciting?
And finally, what does she do if you ask her about more recent events? Have you tried changing the focus to current events or even to when she was a newlywed or had her first child or some life stage you have in common? Try to get her to relate to something that's going on in your life, even if she just tells you what it was like when she went through it. At the very least, she might hold court on a new topic and her doctor would have another information point to help him figure out how she's doing. You might even learn some juicy family secret or poignant fact about her life, your family, or even your childhood. We got a very juicy tidbit that explained a lot of family drama by listening to an older relative talking about old family pictures. She passed away less than a year later. We're happy to have a mystery explained, plus we were happy she got to enjoy sharing that juicy bit of gossip with a new audience.
She has trouble hearing. She is loosing her capacity to speak in English. Her accent has become very thick. She speaks in an English/Spanish combination and can't understand why people don't understand her or even acknowledge her speaking to them. She doesn't seem to care much of anything going on in the present. It all makes her anxious. Point well taken. I'll talk with my sisters about an evaluation, and make an appointment. Thanks for your input.
Another thought: how is her hearing? It's easy to "hold court" without actually listening to what other people say, whereas having a regular conversation is very hard, especially if you don't want to admit you can't hear what people are saying. Does she hear, understand, and modify her dialog if people ask her questions about her childhood or is she just reciting?
And finally, what does she do if you ask her about more recent events? Have you tried changing the focus to current events or even to when she was a newlywed or had her first child or some life stage you have in common? Try to get her to relate to something that's going on in your life, even if she just tells you what it was like when she went through it. At the very least, she might hold court on a new topic and her doctor would have another information point to help him figure out how she's doing. You might even learn some juicy family secret or poignant fact about her life, your family, or even your childhood. We got a very juicy tidbit that explained a lot of family drama by listening to an older relative talking about old family pictures. She passed away less than a year later. We're happy to have a mystery explained, plus we were happy she got to enjoy sharing that juicy bit of gossip with a new audience.
Point well taken. I'll talk with my sisters about an evaluation, and make an appointment. Thanks for your input.