Getting ready to go

I know as I sort things out here that I'm going to go through a lot of memories again. Infact it's already started.

I'm surprized, looking back, that I came up here really. I've never looked after anyone in that kind of situation before. Obviously I've been around when people have been very ill. I've lost a lot of people in my life one way and another. Some through long illnesses. But I'd never been involved like this with someone who was so dependent. I mean, in the end I couldn't cope and she had to have the specialised care the home could give her.

She had advanced Parkinson's Disease and Lewy Body's dementia, a type of dementia that sometimes comes with Parkinsons which is different from Altzheimers. She had scoliosis which I believe was caused by the combination of Parkinsons and Lewy Body's and which became very acute. And she had skin cancer.

Parkinsons Disease

http://www.parkinsons.org.uk


Lewy Body's Dementia

http://www.lewybodydementia.org



If I hadn't come up here she would have had to cope with going through this without much support. She was very strong but I know she was very frightened at times. What she was going through was quite extreme. With Lewy Body's dementia there're often times of clarity too. Along with the times when she wanted to arrange with me to go and rescue Anne Frank. And, when she didn't want me to leave because she thought the Gestapo were outside. And other things.

I could have left when she went into the home I guess. But I decided not too because she would've been virtually alone. There was a reason I why I couldn't move her down to London so I either stayed here or left to face what was coming by herself.