I have had lots of time over the last few months to reflect on Mum’s death and my daughter’s birth, and it has struck me, coming as they did within 4 weeks of each other, how much similarity there is between start and end of life care. This circularity of life has been both comforting […]
I had intended to share this blog (initially written last year) on Friday 1st September, to mark both the start of Alzheimer’s Awareness Month and the start of my maternity leave. But 1st September ended up being a far more significant date as it’s the day that our lovely Ma passed away. As anyone who […]
It’s amazing how quickly things change. At the start of May I went home for a typical and unremarkable weekend. Mum was quiet but seemed happy and although slow and a bit doddery on her feet we walked to the park and threw her ball around. One night the care lady came while we were […]
We made a donation of £1000 from funds raised in 2016 to support the Alzheimer’s Society campaigning work. They asked us to write a blog for their website explaining why we chose to make this donation, the blog below also features on the Alzheimer’s Society website. We are ‘lucky’ in that Mum is entitled to […]
Increasingly Mum is silent. And typically when she does talk the words are jumbled and there is rarely any sense in what she says. Often basic requests such as “take your shoes off” or “sit down” take multiple attempts and encouragement before they are actioned. Yet a level of comprehension clearly remains some of the […]
It’s been years since I’ve cried in front of Mum. My main role when I’m at home is chief cheerer-uper. Her mood is so fragile, and emotional memory so much stronger than factual memory, that any seemingly small upset can linger for ages. It’s impossible to cheer someone up when they can’t remember the reassurance […]
Mum used to have lots of stories. We grew up hearing about her childhood in Africa, boarding school in England, training to be a nurse, how she met our Dad, us as small children to name but a few regular topics. For a while, when the here and now started to slip away, the past […]
I have started wondering what Mum dreams about. I like to think that in her dream world things are the same as they ever were. That the night time hours are an escape from the fear that dogs her all day. The fact that she starts to ask if it’s time to go to bed […]
I finished reading Where Memories Go a few weeks ago now. But the urge to write some of the thoughts it prompted hasn’t passed. So as the train carries me back to one life from the other I have started to put thumbs to screen. I highly recommend Sally Magnusson’s book. She writes so poetically […]