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So sorry to hear all the stories in this thread. My grandmother died of Alzheimers when I was 16. No one in the family knew she had it until Grandpa suddenly died of advanced liver cancer that he hadn't told anyone about. We very quickly realized he had been helping her through everything and that she was not able to live on her own at all with him gone. She declined over the next three years and faded away. The last time I saw her she thought I was my mother and she had no idea who my sister was.
My husband's grandmother just passed from it to years ago, too. She was in hospital and so bad that she just cried all day long. Tears just streaming down her face and she would sit there and moan. Nothing anyone did would cheer her. A few months after that started, she forgot how to eat and swallow. Her husband still visited her every day, but I don't know what he did while he was there.
It's a brutal disease with no mercy. The most you can do is help the rest of the family cope with the new normal, and even that will be changing. Good luck with everything. People you work with should understand that family comes first.
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