ELK GROVE — For those getting ready to celebrate Dad or the father figures in their life this Father’s Day, one father-and-son duo serves as a reminder to take a moment to pause and simply soak it all in.
The dynamic known for a lifetime can so quickly change when a parent is diagnosed with dementia. But Dan Salinger and his father, Ed Salinger, 92, aren’t letting the daunting diagnosis slow them down.
In 2020, Ed’s six children noticed his cognitive decline was getting to a point that they had to step in. Ed was still living on his own until the day he turned up with a badly bruised shoulder.
“We knew he took a fall. We knew he didn’t remember it. We didn’t know where. We just couldn’t fathom the idea that he could be down for 12 hours and nobody finds him,” Dan said.
Several of Dan’s children shuffled the responsibility of caring for him in their homes, deciding ultimately they did not want to put him in a care facility.