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  1. NickC Jul 14, 2019

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    I'm staying with my dad for a few days as he's unwell and my Uncle has come along for a couple of days too.
    We (my dad, Uncle and I) start talking about watches. My dad now wears a Citizen Eco Drive and, with his dementia, doesn't remember all the amazing pieces he's entrusted to me over the years.
    My Uncle reminds me that my dad bought him a Speedmaster for his 21st birthday. My uncle turned 21 in early 1970.
    Tells me he still has the box etc and it's still on the bracelet it came on but then the nightmare comes.

    Says he recently dropped it and smashed the 'glass' so he sent it to Omega for a service and they replaced the 'glass'. He said it was away for a few weeks.
    Now, he has no interest in the value of it at all but he also has no idea/interest if Omega replaced anything else. We normally live about 500 miles from each other so it's not like I can pop in to check.
    This is going to gnaw away at me for a long time!
     
    Etp095 likes this.
  2. blufinz52 Hears dead people, not watch rotors. Jul 14, 2019

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    My Dad passed away 2 months ago at the age of 92. He also suffered from dementia the last couple of years. Enjoy your time with your Dad and don't worry about a watch.
     
    Joe_A, M'Bob, kov and 16 others like this.
  3. Fritz genuflects before the mighty quartzophobe Jul 14, 2019

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    Ditto... I just lost my Dad last year after a few years of dementia, value every minute you can have with him. The watch really is nothing compared with time with your dad.
     
    Als 27, jaguar11, DaveK and 3 others like this.
  4. michael22 Jul 14, 2019

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    Your uncles watch, your dad....
    Whatever Omega did to the watch, worse things will have been done.
     
    DaveK, BatDad and Etp095 like this.
  5. NickC Jul 15, 2019

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    Thanks for all the comments. I realise how precious time with my dad is and I'm sorry for the loss you guys have gone through.
    Dementia is a bastard and he's only 74 which is no age really.
     
    blufinz52, WatchCor, Als 27 and 2 others like this.
  6. Martin_J_N Jul 15, 2019

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    Dementia is also a bitch, my mum has it, it has all but taken away the person I knew, mum is not far off forgetting who I am, you can see how the lack of recognition has grown on each visit. The difficulty is that the person concerned has no idea that they are ill, no idea that they are suffering from Dementia, if I mention or talk about dementia mum will say that she is so grateful that she doesn't have anything like that, it must be horrible for those that have it.

    Enjoy your time with your dad, make the most of those lucid moments as they will not always be there.
     
    blufinz52 and WatchCor like this.
  7. NickC Jul 15, 2019

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    I'm on that journey with you. The recognition is definitely diminishing and I've already said goodbye to my dad in many ways. The man he is now is not the dad I had, they just look the same. He also doesn't think there's anything wrong with him which, I think, is for the best at the moment. Thoughts are with you.
     
    blufinz52 likes this.
  8. michael22 Jul 15, 2019

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    I watched my grandfather die with dementia.
    Each time I visited we would go through the pleasantries, & then he would start reminiscing. Each time, more recency was lost, & more ancient things were remembered.
    One day, I didn't really recognise what he was talking about. "Remember when we did..." & I didn't remember. After a few minutes, I realised he was remembering something from before I was born, & was mistaking me for my father. There wasn't long to go, from then.
     
  9. Martin_J_N Jul 15, 2019

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    I am there now, my mum assumes that my brother is my dad (unfortunately my dad died 12 years ago), always asking him where they are going for a holiday or at the weekend :(.

    The latest worry is the hallucinations, apparently a very common part of dementia, the sufferer will see things, my mum keeps seeing little people running along the fence in her back garden or across the work tops or on the decking - advice is not to argue but to turn the conversation away from the issue, distraction is key.

    People don't understand just how heartbreaking dementia is until they have a relative suffering from the illness, the problem is that it is not recognised as being a big issue like cancer or heart disease where there are support networks in place, there is next to nothing for dementia sufferers or their carers, in a lot of cases you find out what is happening by reading posts on forums and then raising issues with the health workers.

    Like cancer, dementia doesn't affect everyone, and again like cancer it doesn't discriminate, my mum was (still is) fit and fundamentally healthy, its just her mind that is deteriorating, she enjoyed mind games crosswords and the like, she enjoyed things that tested her mentally.

    Dementia is just a bloody horrible illness, horrible.
     
    smitty190373, NickC and michael22 like this.
  10. Togri v. 2.0 Wow! Custom title... cool Jul 15, 2019

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    My dad also died from dementia, Alzheimers, almost three years ago. He got it in a rather “young” age, he was diagnosed when he was 60 in 2003. It was rather slow moving and he became really bad around 2012’ish. It is so strange to see your dad, who was a role model for me on so many levels, slowly disappear like that.

    I hope the Speedmaster is alright :)
     
    smitty190373 likes this.