13 years ago. Remembering the first moments like they were yesterday. I was working at Commonwealth Bank when I started noticing things… little things. Forgetting routes she used to know by heart. Repeating stories. Getting unusually nervous.⁣ ⁣ This means she was just 52 when we started seeing the signs of early-onset dementia. But that doesn’t mean it started then. Dementia often creeps in slowly, quietly, and by the time it’s visible, it’s already rooted.⁣ ⁣ When Mommy became afraid to drive in Nassau, I knew something was wrong. She drove people around the U.S. confidently. That fear? That hesitation? That wasn’t her.⁣ Thirteen years. That’s how long it’s been since I first noticed. Thirteen years of watching my mom slowly disappear, not all at once, but in pieces.⁣ ⁣ And grief? It doesn’t wait until the end. It lives in the in-between. It visits you in grocery aisles, in forgotten birthdays, no more talks, in blank stares that once held your name.⁣ ⁣ People think dementia is just ...