My mother keeps accusing my daughter of taking a ring off her finger and not giving it back. I tried to tell her its getting fixed' but now she'd getting angry asting she didn't break it. No one in family knows what this ring she describes looks like. If so I would just buy another one. She doesn't remember much but she will bring this incident up out of the blue. She will either say it was one of her female grandchildren at diffrent times that ripped it off her finger. Usually it's my daughter since we are her caretakers. Help
Since she is fixated on the ring, you are doing the right thing by telling her it’s at the jeweler’s being repaired. If you don’t, she will only become more upset. Make sure everyone who comes in contact with her tells her the same story. It’s pretty much the only thing you can do.
I'd try comforting her, telling her that you're sorry that it's missing and promising to look all around for it. But what this really is is agitation.
Talk to her doctor about the fact that she is increasingly agitated. Sometimes meds can help with this.
I came across this article here on Aging Care about memory issues and thefts. This is one tough phase for everyone to go through. https://www.agingcare.com/articles/stealing-theft-accusations-alzheimers-dementia-133383.htm
MIL doesn't have "dementia" as such, but she is VERY "dotty" and unable to process information outside her comfort zone. If she sees a mouse outdoors, she assumes that mouse wants to come into her warm house, so she is sprinkling D-Con around the yard to "scare" the mice away. This is just how her mind works.....she's accused me of so many things that I have not done--now it just falls on deaf ears.
We've been dealing with this for 30+ years. She just gets slightly less able to think coherently every year.