Pauline was a fun loving, larger than life lady.

She loved to laugh, to have a tipple of whiskey, a cigarette and to curse ! We all knew when Pauline was in the room. Her greatest love though was her family, and in particular her husband George.

When Pauline was widowed she was devastated, but tried to carry on living her life as fully as possible. But then dementia arrived in her life, slowly and quietly at first, affecting word finding and some difficulty with short term memory recall. However, at this point she could still do some of things she loved. She was an avid reader, a whizz with crosswords and a demon at jigsaw puzzles.

Then it became more pronounced, every day tasks were more of a challenge, conversations were on a permanent loop of repetition and short -term memory was gone. 

But every so often there were signs that Pauline was still there, a loud laugh, a naughty swear word, turn of phrase and the twinkle in her eye. The most painful period was when Pauline was aware of her difficulties and struggled to accept that she was forgetting things and couldn't really care for herself any more. She would say with anguish, 'I'm bloody barmy, I want to be with George, I wish I could just be gone'. Slowly, but surely the books, the crosswords and the puzzles became too challenging and were packed away for good. The T.V. became the main source of entertainment for Pauline, and she often forgot what she had watched. Even her enjoyment of the soaps was lost. 

This was painful for her loved ones too, watching Pauline slowly but surely disappear from them. Keeping her safe became a priority and handing her over into the care of others was a difficult and agonising decision. 

Dementia gallops quickly once it takes hold and the day was to come when Pauline didn't recognise her own son, so sad and so distressing to experience.

Anyone that has lost someone to dementia will know the pain and the cruelty of the disease, but will also know the importance of keeping the memory of the person alive - the person full of life and vigour and of sound mind. That is how we remember Pauline - an incredibly naughty but nice lady.