Late-night face licking

After my mother died around 8 months ago, I adopted her cat Gray. Gray is almost 18 years old and deaf. I've known him since he was a kitten. He used to sleep with my mom with his paw in her hand. When she was in the hospital and I was staying at her house, he would sleep with me. He was a great comfort to both of us.
   
At first it seemed like Gray made a good adjustment to the move to my apartment to live with me, my roommates, and my other cat, Spike. Gray pretty quickly claimed my bed as his territory. A few weeks after he moved in with me, though, he started waking me up a few times a night by licking my face, especially my ears. I responded inconsistently, sometimes letting him do it for a bit until he settled down, sometimes distracting him with pets, and sometimes blocking my face with a sheet or pillow.
   
It has been getting steadily worse. He now tries to move whatever is blocking him (a sheet, a pillow, my hand...) with his claws to get at my face, so he has scratched me a few times (he doesn't seem aggressive when he's doing it, he's usually purring, but it still hurts). He also does it repeatedly throughout the night, so I am having a hard time getting more than a couple of minutes of sleep at a time. I have now also tried wearing a citrus scented face lotion and gently picking him up and moving him away from my face, but those things haven't worked at all. I live in a loft with no bedroom door, so I couldn't lock him out of my bedroom even if I wanted to.
   
I really just want Gray to have a happy and comfortable life for whatever time he is left with us, but I also desperately need sleep. I have been staying overnight at my partner's a bit more often so I can sleep, but I feel bad about leaving my cats alone. Do you have any thoughts on how I can help my cat be happy and deter the constant late-night licking?
   
Thank you.

It's a bit late, but do you or anyone in your family have anything of your grandmothers that would still have her scent on it? Sheets, clothing, blankets? It might stop, if not maybe a small crate that you could put kittie in, but small enough to put close to you on bed at night. This way hes still close, you could reach in w/fingers.& still sleep.

Sorry, your Mom's stuff:{