The late-day window
Before She Is Left Alone for an Hour: Check the Signs, the Task, and the Hour
Deciding whether she can be alone starts with a few ordinary afternoons of observation, not with a guess about how she will do.
Most families ask whether she can be alone as though it were a yes or no question. It is more useful to ask it in pieces: which hour, which task, and for how long. The answer for a ten-minute errand down the hall is not the answer for two hours on a Saturday evening. Start with small pieces and watch what happens.
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Watch the hour before you decide the hour
Over several ordinary afternoons, notice when she is most restless, most unsure, or most likely to start looking for the door. Many families find this lands in the late afternoon and early evening. Write down the time, what was happening, and how it ended. The pattern tells you which hour is the hardest, and that is the hour you should not leave her alone in yet.
Test one task at a time
Try her alone for a short, specific task: folding laundry in the next room while you are in the kitchen, or sitting on the porch with the door visible from the chair. Stop the test if she gets up repeatedly, tries the lock, or asks for someone who is not there. A short success tells you more than a long guess.
Check what she can do without prompting
Ask yourself what she can manage on her own right now. Can she find the bathroom in the dark? Can she recognize the phone and use it to call you? Does she know the door is not the way home? These are not tests she should fail to prove a point. They are the inventory you need before you leave the house.
Ask her doctor the right questions
Bring a short list to her next appointment. Ask whether her current stage of memory change means she should be supervised during certain hours, whether a formal assessment would help, and what changes would be worth reporting between visits. Her doctor can answer these for her. Your job is to bring the observations, the hours, and the questions.
Compare the options by the hour, not the total
A short check-in every hour may suit one afternoon, while a longer block with someone else in the house may suit another. Put each option against the hardest hour you wrote down. If an option does not cover that hour, it is not a fit, however much time it offers overall.
When you have a few weeks of notes, you will know more than most families do on the first day of the decision. If you want a fuller picture of the steps around this, the About this site page explains how these guides are built.