My husband has begun reading aloud all the store names, the street names, the bumper stickers, and even the license plates we pass as we are driving. Is this something all people with dementia do? I have known other people with dementia who have done the same thing. In fact, I have known Miklos to make fun of those people and be puzzled by why they would do such a thing.

Sometimes he reads the words with Hungarian phonetics, which is an old form of humor for him, and makes it a joke. Often, he just reads them aloud. This constant inane banter becomes really irritating, especially on a long drive.

I was ready to tear my hair out, or more likely pull his hair out, after our recent drive to Fresno. During the drive, he not only read road signs, he also asked every ten minutes why the drive was taking so much longer than usual. It actually wasn’t, and I had taken a route that avoided the worst traffic around Stockton, which has occasionally added over an hour to our trip. He is not such a naturally optimistic person that I would expect him to only remember the unusually speedy trips, but perhaps he only remembers the trips from years ago when the traffic really was lighter.

I speculate that reading the signs is a way of demonstrating to himself that he still can read, that he still is competent in something. I will probably never know why, and I will try not to become so irritated in the future. I do not want to become a whiny and resentful person. It helps neither of us. I suspect that if I just tune him out entirely when he goes on and on, I will be calmer for it, and he may not notice.