The wife tells me she is going to fire her window cleaner because he is just too unreliable. I keep telling her to keep him on as he is a really nice guy and does a good job; he just old. He also has a key to the front door and lets himself through the house to clean the back windows and doesn't leave a mess behind him. The dog is always happy to see him as well. ? I'm not sure what the problem is with our window cleaner. Both his short term and long term memory are going. Dementia will explain one but not the other. He even helps out in the winter and takes our dog for a walk when its too dark for the wife to do it on one of her two work days a week.
On a serious note, I agree that this is when we can show a little empathy.Sooner or later we could well be in the same position; me sooner than most on here. Having had both parents suffer dementia I have seen both the humorous and the sad sides of the illness. As my Dad used to say; its not always about the money, its also about going the extra mile for someone in need.
When dealing with someone with dementia we always speak to the family and ask them how we should proceed. Many cases they tell us to collect from them. We also had a daughter cancel her mother's window clean and give the job to her window cleaner so she could pay for them both at the same time. That made sense to me.
The neighbours also tend to be on the look out when someone has dementia, so we can make or break our reputation with those listening in. Old Betty was one such customer. She would open the front door every few minutes and greet us, mention that it was a lovely day and then ask how much she owed us. She would pay us, then the greeting, weather and payment request would happen another 10 times whilst we were cleaning. We got commended a few years later for our dealing with Betty from the neighbour behind her whose windows we never cleaned. The whole estate knew about our dealings with her.
Then there's also the funny things that happen that in their sadness can bring on a smile. Our neighbour across the road is 92 and is suffering from dementia. We have cleaned their windows for many years before his wife died last year. He told me he didn't want another window cleaner because he already has one. ? I mentioned the conversation to his daughter and we both laughed. But he is happy for me to continue to put his dustbin out every collection day which I have done for years.
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