A birthday, an anniversay and Valentines Day
Today is Valentines Day. It is also my Mum's 81st birthday and my parents 60th wedding anniversary, and dementia is a cruel, cruel disease. Although it has been just over a year since my Mum was admitted to the dementia section of the local nursing home, this day will now always be bittersweet for me. Will Mum even realise what today is and even when I call her to sing Happy Birthday, even when she is reminded by the carers and upon my Dad's visit, will she get excited and beam happiness like she used to? Valentines Day was always a memorable day in our household. An incredibly romantic gesture to be married on this day. Being her 21st birthday meant that my Dad ensured she would never forget how much he loved her and wanted her to be celebrated on this day. For me now, today is also a day I think about the change in their lives, that nothing will ever be the same, the days that now are designed around my Dad's visits to the nursing home, the phone calls from me tha