Is a cow an animal?

If you have a dementia sufferer in the family at some point they will under go testing. Now you can sit there and weep at what is lost or disrespectfully chuckle at the answers. Those who know me will gues which route I took.

We go to testing with me, my bonkers dad and my partially deaf mum . Sorry if that seems insensitive, logically incorrect or uncaring. It's our way of coping.

What year is it?
Answer don't YOU know? Said very sympathetically .....by dad.

Has there ever been a woman PM? Answer.....don't be silly.. To be fair, you could have asked this when Mrs T was in power and he would not have known. No interest what so ever in politics.

Then came can you name me five animals, it may have been ten.  Answer dog........ After minutes the tester , a really patient man asked again.   Some minutes later dad asked Is a cow an animal?

My mum then drained of colour... Not quite sure what she had heard. Luckily she missed some of the others , mainly because she refuses to wear her hearing aid, I tell her it's fine.

How do you tell them after almost 60 years of marriage this is the start of the end?

At first you don't. But after 18 months of going down hill you have to start with the home truths. Not the perfect job for a daughter .

We now talk openly about how its not going to get better. Ever.

So the man who I grew up with, who taught me the love of making things and ideas, who spent hours making fancy dress costumes out of polystyrene, yes we made a sit in EMU, it was the late 70s early 80s, all of the muppets, FULL SIZE!!!!!  Including that great big monster thing.

        sits there happy but not there.