Women's Color Knowledge is the Last to Go

My father was visiting with my mother, who has Alzheimer's, and she was ignoring him, which is sometimes a good idea. Or perhaps it was one of her non-responsive days. Either way, he wasn't getting a thing out of her, so he was talking to her about things he hoped she would find interesting. He noticed a basket of silk flowers in the day room where they were sitting and, not expecting an answer, he said, "Aren't those pretty blue flowers?"

My mother quickly responded, "They're purple."

She didn't say another thing that day.