From KIPLINGER.COM
A few months before my mom’s 66th birthday, a doctor diagnosed her with Alzheimer’s disease. At that time — November 2008 — she was exhibiting symptoms of the early stages of dementia, such as short-term memory loss.
In July 2009, another doctor confirmed the Alzheimer’s diagnosis and also said she had white-matter disease — another possible contributor to her dementia. By then, she could still handle daily tasks, such as cooking and bathing, and she was still active socially. Yet she didn’t know what day of the week, month or year it was. She couldn’t recite a sequence of three words the doctor had said just a minute earlier. The doctor told her that she should stop driving and that someone else should handle her finances.