"Is it okay to fib to someone with dementia? It certainly can grease a conversation and add quality to life.

Many people with mid-stage Alzheimer's (or another form of dementia) like to talk, and ask questions. These questions are partly a bid to latch onto bits of memories that have slipped just beyond their reach. They're also an instinctual way of continuing the normal back-and-forth of social discourse – even though what the person with dementia asks, at his or her turn, tends to be the same repetitive thing on a very short replay cycle."