The post-Christmas period is a challenge for those of us living with dementia. We check through received cards and electronic greetings to help us remember for next year.
Who gave which gifts also matters, although thank-you letters seem to be a thing of the past. Some gifts are both greatly welcomed and challenging, like the Spotify account Alex gave me.
But I still can’t quite crack it! As someone with dementia, I also find it reassuring to check through online purchases. Scams are tragically easy and common to fall victim to.
People are generally very helpful, but if you help someone with dementia, please be patient and gentle — we are slower than most. The interviewer for the podcast I did for Today’s Wills and Probate Podcast sent me a link to his final edit for me to “sign off”.
It was professional, thoughtful, and terrific. I hope it will help solicitors give those of us with dementia even better service, something we need for wills, powers of attorney, and much more. I am very glad I did it.
The world of politics reminded me of Shakespeare’s famous line: “All the world’s a stage, and all the men and women merely players.” It comes from As You Like It, spoken by the melancholy Jaques, comparing life to a play in which we all perform different roles, with entrances and exits.
Former Chancellor Nadhim Zahawi brought this to mind as he left the Conservatives and joined Reform. I have always liked him. I also found it ironic, given the Shakespeare reference, that he was MP for Stratford-upon-Avon.
He masterminded the Covid vaccination programme, and I once interviewed him about it for The Spectator; he was superb.
As an experienced doer and deliverer, he is a major coup for Nigel Farage. The dismissal of Shadow Justice Secretary Robert Jenrick is less straightforward.
Kemi Badenoch gave him his marching orders for planning to defect, his crime being disloyalty, tainted with incompetence. Leaving a resignation speech “printed out and hanging around” was just dumb. He won’t be a great get if he joins Reform, and Kemi may be pleased to see the back of him, as he is often talked of as a potential rival leader.
Alastair Stewart: Dementia makes the post-Christmas period challenging
| GB NEWSThe air was thick with talk of more U-turns by Labour, on business rates and ID cards. So many U-turns, they’ll soon be back where they started.
The delay in local elections stinks to high heaven. They really are a shambles, seemingly incapable of recovery, as Dan Hodges wrote this week.
The state of private education troubles me deeply. More independent schools have gone to the wall, and I hear that companies and individuals trying to buy them are finding it hard to raise capital.
These quality independent alternatives to the state monopoly could be gone forever. I fear this was an intended consequence of Labour’s VAT on fees, an act of ignorant, short-sighted, and envious policy if ever there was one.
My daughter, Clemmie, has returned to Saudi Arabia, where her efforts to create a new network of SEN specialist schools go from strength to strength.
Our grandchildren, her nephews, are thriving too. But I am fearful for the country and world they will inherit. I am glad that, despite dementia, I can still recall our great days and better times globally. I will share all of that with them as they grow up. They are my joy and my best medicine. Who would have predicted Greenland would become the next cause célèbre of foreign policy?
The idea that the USA would invade NATO territory seems to have faded, as a brighter-than-Trump Secretary of State put in the heavy lifting on the idea I suggested last week, offering to buy it from Denmark. I’ll be watching.