One day in May 2022, Dad was standing on the deck at my house celebrating the upcoming wedding of my son and daughter-in-law as though nothing was wrong.
10 days before this party, Dad was released from the hospital after being admitted for pneumonia. The doctor suggested Dad should take it easy. He said with a big smile, “I have a wedding to attend.” He didn’t mention there were four days of celebrations planned and he was travelling 1700 miles for the wedding. 4 days after the wedding, he would be admitted to the hospital for septic shock.
We thought the septic shock was the worst of it and once he survived that, life would slowly return to normal. We had all hopes pinned to the issues Dad was experiencing being related to the infections. We wanted to believe the clear test result would resolve everything. Being tired and off his game could surely all be related to the infections raging through his body. (None of this would be true.)
I believe Dad made it to the celebrations through sheer will and determination. Lying in the hospital as he recovered, he smiled and told my mom it was a wonderful wedding.
It would be five months before a formal medical diagnosis of dementia.
Photo of the family minutes before all the guests arrived. Dad in blue shirt.
For reference:
…some infectious conditions like pneumonia are more common in people with dementia than healthy people the same age.
…conditions caused by the body’s immune system attacking nerve cells also can cause dementia.
Kelley Irwin 
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