Older brother near Dallas, Texas

[cranefly]

Well, my older brother Rick has been having memory problems for at least a decade, with various diagnoses that finally settled on Alzheimer's.  He lives down near Dallas, Texas, with a "crazy cat woman" of a wife.

Anyway, yesterday morning he found the "missing" keys to their Hyundai Entourage and drove off.  Full tank of gas.

He's been missing 24 hours now.

[Greg]

That's no good.

[cranefly]

Okay, so he's been found.  No details yet, except that he was a two-hour drive away.  He was missing for just over 24 hours.

Ho-boy.  Something needs to change down there.

[Greg]

That's a relief and a good ending.

And the question on, it seems, every one's minds is what do you do now?

Good luck.

[Drunk Monk]

Just saw this on sitonmyfacebook - glad he's safe. What a scare.

[cranefly]

More details keep coming in.

They think he ran out of gas and set off on foot.  They don't know this for sure because they still haven't found the van.

Residents of a housing division saw him wandering about and got paranoid, called the cops.  When the cops arrived, Rick panicked and ran.  I hate to think how that went down.  It was very hot out, and he was sweaty, dehydrated.

He's in the hospital where they found him.  The wife and youngest daughter are headed there to retrieve him.  But it sounds like they want to keep him through the weekend, and social services is being called in.  That could be a good thing.

Two clues to why this could be a good thing.  One: After he was found, the wife told the older daughter, "I'm not going to yell at him about this."  As if that was even a consideration.  And yes, from what we know, she yells at him a lot for his forgetfulness and doesn't seem to fully get it.  Two: The wife revealed that Rick had found the keys a couple weeks ago, but she did nothing about it.

[cranefly]

I suppose I'll post an epilogue of sorts.

Yes, Rick did run out of gas.  I can't begin to imagine what it was like for him to be driving about for so long, likely in a panic, not knowing where he was or what to do.

When he did run out of gas, a good samaritan stopped to ask if he needed help.  Good ole Rick, he told the guy no, that his kids were in the back seat and they had cell phones and could call for help.  Not true, of course.  He just didn't want to inconvenience anyone -- or he was afraid he'd get in trouble.  So the good samaritan left.

Rick then set off on foot.

The police had told the older daughter that the way these cases usually end is that the person gets so hungry and thirsty that they eventually enter a store or house to steal food and drink.  The police nailed it.  Again it's hard for me to imagine Rick's state of mind when he finally did venture into a house looking for food and water.

The woman of the house was home.  She shot at Rick, who fled, then called the police.  That's when he was caught.

Texas is not a good place to wander into homes.

Rick is back home.  Not much has changed.  The wife did confiscate the keys, so he's unlikely to go on another horror ride.  There aren't many good options to consider.  It's just a bad situation that for the moment is ... stable.

[Greg]

Holy fucking yikes.

Alzheimer's is one of my greatest fears.

[Drunk Monk]

It must have been downright terrifying to get shot at in that state of mind.  Your poor brother.

My mom constantly goes on about her memory and her fear of Alzheimer's.  Her memory is better than mine sometimes, but we both forget odd things.  Fortunately, we haven't done anything like my dad trying to eat soup with a fork or brushing his teeth with a pen.  That's Alzheimer's, I keep telling my mom.  She finally went to some talk at the senior center and the speaker's talking points convinced her what I've been saying all along - not Alzheimer's, just growing old.  

I hope things get better for your brother.  Sounds complicated with his wife.