Yes, you can. There is a window when dementia is not complete and the person has "good" days when they have memory recall and "bad" days when they don't. After a while, the bad days outnumber the good ones and the person remembers nothing and, in many cases, can't even remember their own name or put together a cohesive sentence.
My father-in-law's decline was slow and very painful to watch. He still recognised everybody (mostly, he did tend to call his great-grandson by his grandson's name, they're so alike that Zac is practically a clone).
I recently lost a cousin to vascular dementia, which manifests similarly to Alzheimer's.
This post was edited by Stu Spelling Bee at August 19, 2022 5:40 PM MDT
My longest-term friend died from it. It was actually Covid that provided the knock-out blow but on top of severe Alzheimer's and a heart problem - three much older women in the same care-home had Covid but survived.
Towards the end he had lost his power of speech to the extent he could sometimes put two or three words together (one was often "no!") but was mostly just gabbled incoherently when he tried.
As his wife remarked, we have no idea what people in that state actually do know or think. So it's quite possible that by then he no longer knew what was wrong with him. Or even if he knew anything was.....
This post was edited by Durdle at September 12, 2022 4:28 PM MDT
Shuhak 