Alzheimer's

My mom is 82 and she has Alzheimer's disease. My dad died in 1999 and we all thought that Mom would be able to travel & do stuff that Dad didn't like to do while he was alive. But not long after Dad died it became clear that she was having some real problems coping with day to day stuff. Everybody else in the family thought it was grief, but I thought it was more than that. Everybody was furious when I mentioned the possibility of Alzheimer's, and even madder when I insisted she go see the doctor. Well, of course, it did turn out to be Alzheimer's. She is now on Aricept and Namenda and she is doing ok, it is the rest of us who are going insane trying to cope with this. She is like having a little kid around, and it's hard to see your Mom like that. I had to take her car keys away from her a couple of years ago (that was a fun day). She had two fender benders, got a ticket for going the wrong way on a busy road, and got lost on the way back from the mall. She was furious when I took her keys away, and stayed mad off and on for quite a while. She just didn't (and doesn't) understand what this disease is doing to her (of course, that is part of what the disease is doing to her).