This makes me simultaneously want to laugh and cry...
My grandad died last year, just after Christmas. In the last couple of years of his life he developed pretty serious dementia and had to go into care. At one point he was in hospital after a fall and phoned my mum to say she had to come and rescue him as he'd been taken captive by the IRA.

However, one incident sticks in my mind, from a couple of years ago when he was still living at home but just starting to show the signs of losing it.

He phoned my mum and told her that his Sky TV was broken. This had happened a few times, so she explained to him that no, it wasn't broken, but he had to press "1" on the remote.

She then heard him pressing 1 on the phone repeatedly. Shouting down the phone that he was doing it wrong was useless; presumably he was holding the phone at arm's length and pointing it at the TV. Finally, she heard the sound of the phone being put down, and a distant "Hello? Hello? Are you there?" as he picked up the remote control and tried to talk to her with it.

As per the subject line, this pulls me in two directions. Mostly, I split the difference with a sad smile. I just hope his last couple of years were just a blur to him; he'd have hated to be like that.
(Professor Kenny Martin Hmm? What?, Thu 21 Jul 2011, 16:55, 2 replies)

Swapped tellys
Sad isn't it? A friend of mine was telling me about an old lady she knows who accused her carer of "Swapping her brand new flat screen TV for an old one". Of course she hadn't but the old girl could not be convinced otherwise.
(Mackeson_drinker, Thu 21 Jul 2011, 20:58, closed)

Ha ha, your grandad's dead.
But, yeah, seriously, the thought of him not being able to work his Sky box, makes me want to cry, to.

Am I doing this right...?
( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Thu 21 Jul 2011, 21:12, closed)