Twenty years ago I paddled a lot with 'Jim'. Knew him pretty well as a member of a paddling group. 15 years ago, I agreed to store his C-1 in my attic. I haven't seen him since and completely forgot about it. Two weeks ago he called me wanting to pick up his boat. I joked around I that had completely forgotten about it. I said something about getting old. He said he was getting old too and he thought he had dementia. When he came to pick up the boat he was carrying in a fanny pack and put it down so we could climb into the attic and get the boat. After a cup of tea, he had no recollection of where he had put his fanny pack. I had to remind him.
We talked about rolling practice at a pool in town, I said I might be going the coming weekend. He called my house the day of the rolling session, telling my wife he was lost, couldn't find the pool and could she tell him how to get there.
Tonight while I was out, he called wanting to talk to me but talked to my wife instead. He's been unemployed (he's a machinist) since last August. His neighbor told him the reason he hasn't been able to find a job is because he has dementia. He wanted to know if I thought he had dementia. He's a diabetic and he thinks that may have contributed to his condition.
I had mentioned to my wife that he did not seem normal since on his visit to the house, he had deliberately left his gun/fanny pack upstairs since he did not want to leave it in the hallway downstairs because it was too close to the front door. It seemed odd to me that he would forget such a deliberate act in less than an hour.
I haven't called him back yet since it's too late tonight. What would you do? It's going to be tough to hear what I think. He's divorced, 50 yrs old and has been unemployed for about 10 months with no job prospects at all. When I knew him back in the 80's he was a very heavy drinker. Don't know what he's been doing since then or whether that is an additional factor which combined with his diabetes might have caused his problem. I doubt he has health insurance.
At the moment I think I should tell him his memory seemed less than stellar and he should see a doctor for some tests. I'm a little concerned that saying something like that could put him over the edge.

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1977 300d 70k--sold 08
1985 300TD 185k+
1984 307d 126k--sold 8/03
1985 409d 65k--sold 06
1984 300SD 315k--daughter's car
1979 300SD 122k--sold 2/11
1999 Fuso FG Expedition Camper
1993 GMC Sierra 6.5 TD 4x4
1982 Bluebird Wanderlodge CAT 3208--Sold 2/13