Did Somebody Call a Fireman?

So, about a year ago exactly I happened to call my mom as my daughter and I were on our way over to visit. We were nearby and thought we would stop by. My mom has early onset Alzheimer's and was living by herself at the time, so we tried to stop by frequently to check on her. This was the conversation that took place.

Ring ring.
Her: Hello.
Me: Hi, Mom. What are you doing? P and I are going to stop by in a few minutes if that's okay.
Her: Sure, if you get her soon she can see the fire truck.
Me: What? What fire truck?
Her: Oh there are some firemen here putting out the fire. Do you want to talk to them?
She hands the phone off to a random fireman. :)

So apparently my mother decided she was going to use her oven. (Funny, that thought never crossed her mind as we were growing up. Lots of cold cereal and microwave dinners for us.) Although she got confused (don't know if this can be blamed on the Alzheimer's, she really doesn't cook much and didn't have a lot of experience with the oven)and turned a dial for the stovetop instead of the oven settings. There were some items sitting on that burner that caught fire and a very small house fire ensued.

The problem was that my mom, because of the Alzheimer's, did not know what to do. She did not know how to use her phone to call 911 and did not think about grabbing the fire extinguisher from the kitchen cabinet. My mom was doing pretty well in day to day life with her Alzheimer's, but when facing an unknown or stressful situation, her reasoning ability did not work. So she ran next door to her neighbor and explained what was going on. The neighbor called 911 and honestly put the fire out with the extinguisher before they had gotten there. We are eternally grateful to them that they were home and acted quickly.

This situation was the eye opener that my brothers finally needed that my mom could not continue living by herself. For normal day to day living she was fine by herself, but for safety reasons she could no longer be alone. I had met and toured with an independent/assisted living facility 6 months prior, but my brothers had dragged their feet on the move. They finally agreed that it was time for the move. She would still be living by herself in an apartment (with the appliances unplugged), but it would be within a community where there are activities, restaurants, medical offices, and caregivers who can check in on people.

My mom went, kicking and screaming, but we got her to agree to try it out for a couple of months, while her kitchen was being renovated from the fire.

And that is where she is still peacefully living a year later sweetly nestled into this senior community. Not quite.