About Me - the writer of this website.

My name is Jill. I shall call my husband Jack for in the nursery rhyme, when Jack broke his crown, all Jill needed was vinegar and brown paper. If you are reading this page then you will know it doesn’t actually work like that.

I am the wife of a man who has Dementia. Dementia is easy to say and easy to write but not so easy to understand.

When my husband was first diagnosed there was no magical clap of thunder that turned him from one sort of person into another. There was no particular day or week that marked the start of the disease. But like the constant ebb and flow of the sea on rocks it steadily eroded his memory.

In the early years there were things he gradually became incapable of doing, but on the other hand there was plenty he could still do, so life, while being rather strange, remained fairly normal. We had holidays. We went to watch rugby games, football matches and county cricket. We went to concerts and the theatre. His changes were so gradual I found I was learning how to deal with them as they came along.

What I didn’t have, for a long time, was any real back up. It was when I came across a support group that I found real help and advice. I found kindred spirits, a remarkable down to earth leader and fantastic volunteer helpers who had already made the journey. No matter how supportive friends and family are there is nothing like the relief and reassurance you feel when you are in the company of people who know exactly how things are – even when you haven’t told them!

So why have I decided to take a huge leap in the dark and set up this website? The answer is quite straightforward and arises from a conversation on a train.

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