Grandma. We love you. There is no-one quite like Grandma. When being #1 meant something. The sentiment still runs deep. Privileged to know Alex Winstanley, the author of ‘My Grandma has Dementia’.

I needed access to this story when I was young. And so, I suspect, my parents. Talking about the condition in a straightforward and kind way. Through the eyes of the individual and those around them. All having to adapt. The cells in the brain struggling to work as well; medicine can slow it down; different types; and the fact it changes thought and talk.

My Mum’s best friend from school, Carole. Married to Dave. He was big, tough and always doing DIY jobs to help. A real presence at our house. Then they stopped coming. I didn’t know why. No-one said anything. Apparently Dave spent all day on the sofa and Carole all day crying. Only years later did I join up the dots. Support to Carole didn’t exist. Dave was left to wither. Mum and Dad ‘ befuddled’ as the book so evokingly describes it.

Today. We live with dementia. In a recent Purple 365 webinar Lorraine Brown on a video talked through exactly how. Instructive. Insightful. The level of support through organisations such as Dementia Adventure and Alzheimer’s Society are there. Families and their close networks can live. Not merely survive. No longer isolated and forgotten.

All my kids now know about dementia. And I hope will do what my Mum and Dad were never told. Thank you Alex (https://lnkd.in/d6dhwBz8)

For Dave. Happy Friday