For the last weeks, I've been pretty occupied. No time to check new blogs, comment, keep track of the forums or talk to any of you :(... Unfortunately, my grandma had an accident and suddenly my family and I had to face a lot of trouble.

It started with a phone call a few weeks ago, when my grandma called to tell us that she fell and hurt her ankle. It was 6.30 in the morning and my parents and I thought all she needed was someone who would let the doctor into her house. So I took my mum's car and drove to her. And as soon as I saw her lying in her bed, unable to move, I knew that it was definitely not her ankle. Though my grandma wouldn't admit it, she obviously fractured her hip. There was no way around, she had to go to the hospital and needed surgery.

Well, now I could be a little more specific about the details of that particular day, like tell you about the paramedics who scolded me for waiting hours before calling them (I didn't! I called them almost immidiately, i didn't even know that my grandma fell in the middle of the night until she told the paramedics about it!), or I could wonder about how my grandma got back into her bed. Crawl? Actually, I don't wanna know or even think about it! I'm still trying to forget how the paramedics brought her downstairs... All in all, it was a tremendously stressful day, and it didn't help that no one else of my family was able to come and back me.
Next day, she had surgery, but soon we had to realize that the physical damage was the smaller problem. Everything went fine and my grandma was up and walking the day after surgery, but when I visited her the next day, she suddenly started to talk nonsense. She talked about visiting my other grandparents during the night, asked about her mother (who died more than ten years ago), she thought they operated on her foot not hip... it was just nonsense.

The doctors tried to calm us down. Sometimes, this can happen after surgery. Old people react with confusion, but this gets better after a few days. Well, we waited and it really did. Her condition improved and we thought we could take her back after a few weeks and go back to normal.

But then my mum found out that my grandma gave away 4000 Euros to some strangers the day before the accident.
As far as we know, two guys came to her and cleaned her driveway. These two told her a made up story about expensive cleaning powder and that she would now have to give them 4000 Euros in cash and she did. We also found a receipt, but we couldn't read the signature, there was no name of a company, it was a con, more precisely usury. FYI, 4000 Euros is more than 5000 U.S. dollars! My mum asked her about it, and my grandma still thinks it was okay.
Of course, My parents made a report and after that, we started to look around. What we found were more signs of dementia we missed before. Yes, we missed it, but my grandma hid them pretty well. It's an early stage, and right now, we have no idea what we will have to face in the near future.

Grandma just left the hospital, and we all hope she doesn't do anything stupid right now. Like fall again and break the other hip, or wander around, leave the house on her own...
But she is stubborn, more like a little kid, and she doesn't listen anymore. She tells fantastic stories and it's so hard to identify the truth anymore.

Yesterday, a commissioner visited her to ask to tell him everything she remembers about the day these two guys came and took the money. And she did. And a little more.
Right after that, he came to us. And he wanted to talk to me. Though we had warned him about her condition, the commissioner said she appeared to be clear-thinking. Her story appeared to be absolutely believable.
And this is what she told him: No, she did know the boys, she even described them and remembered where they live. That's why she wasn't worried and gave them the money. And by the way, a few months ago, her granddaughter (that would be me) visited her with these two guys and had lunch in a nearby restaurant.

Thanks a lot Grandma, you made me the prime suspect in this case! What a wonderful early birthday present, because my birthday, that would be today. I couldn't be happier!