I think becoming a parent opens your eyes as to what your parents did for you, and for me this coincided with my mum getting Alzheimer’s. I’m having to take on a much bigger role in her life, and we are probably closer now than we’ve ever been. I feel so much love for my mum for everything she did for me, and especially when, newly widowed, she put up with my frankly despicable teenage behaviour, and was still waiting, full of love, for when I came out the other side.
Sadly, I know that the Alzheimer’s will progressively hollow out her personality, leaving little more than a shell (it’s a terrible, terrible illness). Hopefully, I’ll still be able to love her as much as she deserves.
My dad died thirty years ago when I was fourteen, and I’m forever a child when I think about him. I simply have no idea what it’s like to be an adult with a father. He was a star, and I still miss him, especially at big family occasions – the birth of my first daughter was bittersweet as I would have given anything for him to hold her. He would have been a fantastic granddad.