The last word: An affair to remember

She was 82. He was 95. They both had dementia. When they started having sex, says Melinda Henneberger in Slate.com, relatives and caregivers were thrown for a loop.

Bob’s family was horrified at the idea that his relationship with Dorothy might have become sexual. At his age, they wouldn’t have thought it possible. But when Bob’s son walked in and saw Bob’s 82-year-old girlfriend performing a sex act on his 95-year-old father last December, incredulity turned into full-blown panic. His graphic and sputtering cell phone call to the manager of the couple’s assisted-living facility would have been funny, the manager later said, if the consequences hadn’t been so serious.

Because both Bob and Dorothy suffer from dementia, the son assumed that his father didn’t fully understand what was going on. He became determined to keep the two apart and asked the facility’s staff to ensure that they were never left alone together.

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