Aimee Walker - HR Systems Support Advisor

Dementia came into my family life in 2015 when my Grandma was diagnosed. Although it wasn’t a shock to me and my family, it was a giant learning curve of how to adapt to a loved one living with dementia. To start with she would get half way through a task and forget what she was doing. She would hide her purse and household items in places and forget she ever did it and she would wander around without having a place to go. My Grandad had to watch and care for her whilst the rest of us worked - this put great pressure on him.

It wasn’t until a year in things got worse and she had to be constantly under supervision and care, something we weren’t able to give - as much as we wanted to. As a family we made the decision that my Grandma would go into a care home. We always felt whilst we were looking after her at home we didn’t have the relationship we wanted as she always thought we were getting onto her and stopping her doing things. Once my Grandma was in the care home we soon noticed how many other families were going through the same thing, it was comforting to share experiences with the families of other residents.

Things got harder the more time that passed; she struggled to recognise the people closest to her which was something we didn’t cope well with. It’s something we got used to over time. We had to learn and understand each day of visiting my Grandma would be different. She had good days and bad days. Some days we wouldn’t get a word out of her and others we couldn’t stop her from talking. We always felt like we mourned the loss of my Grandma before she actually left us. We focused a lot on the upset dementia brought to our family but when we sat back we realised we had so many highs together, we never laughed, cried, smiled and hugged as much as we did in the years when my Grandma was living with dementia.