My mother is misplacing things more & more. Recently she has been asking for items from us that either we do not have or that she gave to us, but forgets that she gave it to us. In the past, I have returned an item to her, only for it to not be with her anymore (gave it someone else) or she cannot find it.
My mother had advanced dementia & lived in Memory Care Assisted Living. She used to insist 'all the ladies have BIG BIG BIG diamonds except me, so I want mine back.' She had a 2.5 carat solitaire ring I kept at my house for security/safety reasons. There was NO WAY on earth I was going to give her that ring to wear b/c I KNEW it would go missing and then she'd have a meltdown, so I brought her some other inexpensive 'diamond' jewelry like bracelets and rings for her to wear to 'compete' with the other ladies who wore jewelry.
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Best of luck to you.
Eventually “misplacing” changed to “hiding” as she was determined to outsmart the imaginary thieves that robbed her home every day. I noticed that she started to become very angry when I found her stolen items, as if she wanted to be correct that they were gone more than she wanted them back. It was a subtle but odd transition. At that stage I stopped searching her house and didn’t return anything from the box, but simply said “Oh, I’m so sorry to hear it’s gone.”
I told her that I planned to take them for cleaning and repair. Afterwards any time she asked I would tell her they were still in repair and then she stopped asking.
I did keep some inexpensive necklaces in her room but that was all