Grandma Eleanor

My dad is paying my sister Liz (as a summer job) to spend her mornings with his mother in place of the caregivers that he hires. He still hires them to watch her in the afternoon, but it is cheaper and better for her just to pay Liz to watch her in the mornings (plus Liz doesn't drag Grandma to Wendy's and on food errands with her like these obese caregivers have been doing). The doctors aren't sure what my grandma has, they think it's a form of Dementia or Alzheimer's. Some think that she has had a series of small strokes that have damaged parts of her brain (she used to be a smoker).
Now, back in the day, this woman had been the personal secretary for one of the original Warner Brothers in New York. She has an address book with old Hollywood Stars' direct phone numbers in it such as Marilyn Monroe, Humphrey Bogart, etc.. She showed it to me one day when I was in high school, asking her a bunch of questions about her life. She also knows Gregg shorthand (it's a form of writing in symbols and curves that is much faster than regular writing--the only thing is that it looks like scribbles to anyone who hasn't been trained in it.) When the Alzheimers/Dementia first started, my dad would go over and check on her and make sure that her pillbox was filled with the right daily quantities. On one of these visits, he discovered a large bottle of Blackberry Brandy in her broomcloset. Pretty soon, he realized that she was an avid drinker, going through that stuff pretty quickly each month. As her illness progressed, he took over managing her finances and maintaining her checkbook. Every once in a while, there would be an entry in the check register in shorthand for a check that had been written (she knew that my dad didn't know shorthand). However, when the cancelled check would come with the bank statement, we would find out that it was payable to a liquor store. So, my dad had to make weekly visits to clear her out of her alcohol--she was in her late 80s at the time. Finally, one visit, my dad went to use the bathroom, and on his way back, he noticed a 2-liter bottle of Coke in the hall behind a door. My grandma does not drink Coke and never has. My dad asked her what it was for and she said it was for one of her weekly "card parties." But, my dad was highly suspicious since he had found the bottle on the floor behind a door in the hall. He opened it and gave it a sniff. Sure enough, it was full of Blackberry Brandy. This 88-year old woman had bought a 2-liter of Coke from the grocery store, dumped it out, and filled it with Blackberry Brandy in order to hide her addiction from her son. How did she get it? Apparently, she had written a check made out to "cash" and given it to a friend to go pick up her nectar of choice.
Now, she is 90 and the other day, Liz sent me an e-mail about what happened one morning:
"one day when I came in the morning (I come at 8:30 a.m.-she usually is up) she was just getting up and I let myself in as usual and she came to greet me wearing NOTHING EXCEPT UNDERWEAR BOTTOMS!!! saying " oh hi there dear!!!" and then she proceeded to turn on the lights in the apartment so i said " oh, grandma, don't let me disturb you or anything!"!!!!
It is funny, yet so sad to watch what is happening to this woman. This could be us some day.