Tag Archives: post office

I was talking to one of the local shuttle drivers that used to take my dad on errands around town. This was as Dad was beginning to move into mid-stage Alzheimer’s, where he could no longer be trusted to complete even simple tasks independently. One of the chores my mom would send Dad out to do was to get the mail at the post office. The driver would drop Dad off and wait for him. This should have only taken a few minutes. Dad was in there about 10 minutes and the driver got worried, so he went inside to look for him.

He said Dad was wandering around, with a lost look on his face. He said, “I can’t find our box.” Surprisingly, he remembered what number the box was, just not where it was located. This was a task he had easily managed to do hundreds of times before.

The driver helped Dad get the mail but soon after, Mom would have to add one more chore to her growing list, as Dad lost the ability to complete even the most mundane of tasks successfully on his own.