This is a love story from start to finish, Irene and Rachael’s.
Based on the diaries of Rachael Dixey who looked after her civil partner Irene after she developed early onset Alzheimer’s disease.
The story charts the daily decline and inexorable loss of Irene to dementia. With the dramatic deterioration in Irene’s health Rachael turns from lover and soul mate to carer and, finally, single woman. Eventually, no longer able to cope with Irene at home, she makes the agonising decision to put Irene in a care home. There she spent her last six years. When she died aged 66, the couple had spent half their life together.
This book is a powerful and moving account of the progression of dementia, and raises serious questions about how our society cares for those who develop the disease, especially at a young age and those in the gay, lesbian and transgender community. It also deals with loss and grief, during the illness and afterwards. Their memoir will be invaluable for anyone affected by dementia, those working in mental health and those caring for a loved one with a life-changing and incurable illness.
Our Dementia Diary tells with brutal honesty of love, loss and life with Alzheimer’s and opens up discussion of how dementia can be handled better.