weird behaviour

mum has been behaving weird of late. this morning, i literally jumped out of bed when i saw my phone registered 22 missed calls! and this was when i had just managed to take a short 3-hour nap after a whole night of tossing and turning. fearing something bad had happened, i immediately called my brother's place. and guessed what? mum answered and asked if i could go over and drive her to the temple. she added that i should go over as soon as i could. and even after suggesting that we go after lunch, she insisted otherwise. sensing something wrong, i did not try to re-convince her and rushed through brushing my teeth, changing up and rushed out of the house. i asked for mum to meet me at the ground floor. when i arrived, she looked rather glum. and looking at the domestic helper, i sensed something wrong. she asked me to drive her to bedok before heading to the temple as she needed to buy joss sticks, joss papers, offerings and other prayer stuff. i dutifully did so. apparently she had remembered she made some requests from the gods a couple of months back and now wanted to return the dues. and it must be done before the gods return to heaven before the lunar new year. during the journey, i managed to get her to tell me what's wrong. and boy was she full of complains. all these complains sounded like an old woman feeling too bored and being jealous with the fact that her son is spending more time with his new wife. she complained that my brother has been rather rude to her of late, allegedly telling her that she had caused the untility bill to increase, not giving her money to go out, and so on... but looking from her perspective, i can understand her frustrations. this morning, after remembering that she needed to go to the temple, she asked my brother for cash. but instead of doing so, he allegedly told her off and asked why she so liked to go temple so much. he added that being old, she should just stay at home. in the end, he did not give her the money. and mum resorted to borrowing from the domestic helper! hmmm, well, i know not of all the details. but knowing my brother's character, i thought it might be possible that he indeed had been venting his anger and raising his voice at her. but then again, i did not want to take sides. instead, i asked her to reflect on the fact that perhaps my brother could have said things a little rudely, but his intentions had been one of concern that being old, it would be risky for her to go out so often. but it was not easy to convince her given that she herself had been convinced that my brother has been unfairly treating her. and given what happened this morning, she was so convinced that her visit to the temple today would be her last. and as she spoke, she cried. and she started to relate stories that made her angry. her stories included events from aeons ago! she spoke of how my dad left her long time back, how my aunt caused her to miscarry, how she was ill-treated by my grandma, la la la... and the terms she used sounded very crude and angry. it was clear that she had not been able to forgive and move on from events that happened over 40 years ago. and it struck me. her dementia has worsened. the indicators were clear. she had been rather irritable lately. and she had been behaving like she needed a lot more attention. she remembered all those things that happened years ago and talked like as though they had only happened recently. added to this, some of the things she said did not seem to make sense. her sense of numbers and time were often mixed up. in the car, she was convinced today is the seventh lunar month, yet she told me new year is coming... hmmm... challenging indeed. i listened. i corrected her gently when needed. i maintained a consistent sense of calm and kept reminding her of buddha and his teachings. i reminded her that as good buddhist, we should learn to forgive and move on and to continue to do our prayers. over the few hours i was with her, i managed to cool her down. and after visiting the temple, she certainly looked a lot more composed and happy. she had finally returned the dues to the gods for her prayers. and on the way home, she could at least laugh when i joked with her. reflecting on all these developments, it was clear that my mum's aging process is significantly different from that of my dads'. yet one thing is consistent - that taking care of old people is very challenging. i can fully understand if my brother had indeed gotten frustrated. it had happened to me once too when i shouted at my dad. i am not saying it is justified, rather, i am saying it is difficult and needs a lot of self restraint. but when things breaks loose, people will get hurt. feelings will get hurt. and that is where i think siblings should come in and help each other. i just hope this will not happen too often.