Expert: Paula Damgaard - 5/3/2008

Question
John was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at 55 years old in Sept 2004. He has been in stage 6 for a few months. He has always cut grass with a riding lawn tractor. The last 2 years he cut grass every day through the summer. This year he can't do it. He doesn't understand the going back and forth. He will be over here over there. Sometimes next door and sometimes in the road. He went up a steep embankment and had no clue how to get down. I go out with him and he will follow me is the only way he knows where to go. I have 2 acres to mow , I can't walk this while he cuts. How in the world do I tell him he can't mow anymore ? I think deep down he knows but still wants to try. He goes to daycare 3 days a week so I mowed today while he was gone. He doesn't seem to know whether or not it even needs mowed. I don't want him to get hurt or hit when he gets in the road.

Answer
Hi Sandra, My suggestion is that you continue to mow the lawn when he is away, and then when he says it needs to be done, tell him the mower is broken and you are waiting for the repairman, that he can't do it cause it is under warranty and if he messes with it the warranty will be void.  Make sure you do something to the mower that will disable it, so that he can't get out there and try to start it.  I am not a mechanic, but perhaps you could remove the spark plug or something easy that would disable it but make it easy to "fix" so you could start it when needed.

Or sell the mower and hire someone to do it so that the mower is out of his sight.  

Hope this helps.  Little lies are ok as long as they are said with conviction and done for safety issues!  Paula