Alzheimer's 'Family and Friends' Transcript
Judy: We each had our own strengths and weaknesses, so when one was feeling that they couldn't keep going the other would get up and go and take over and do something. And on the odd occasions we needed time out - because you become very tired - and even though it was a very limited time we actually had her from diagnosis until she died, we still needed that little bit of a break and there was never a question asked between us that we took that break .And we just hopped in and helped wherever we could.
Jim: I've got some wonderful grandsons and they're beaut. They say ‘come on Nan, how're you going love?' Give her a kiss, you know.
James: We've got three kids, a daughter and two sons.
Jan: The children and I have talked about, I suppose, lots of just relationships within the family and you know, what's happened. I think they are lots of things we wouldn't have talked about if Alzheimer's hadn't have happened, I think we would have all gone about our busy ways.
Anne: We all live in the same house, but the children really don't have anything to do with him. I mean they will sit around a table and we all have dinner together but they don't talk to him, they don't have any expectations of him anymore. Which is very sad, but it's the way it has to be and they have adapted to it remarkably well.
Ellen: His children are not as concerned as they used to be about their father or about how I'm coping, there's been a bit of a cooling and maybe there's a suspicion in their mind that it might be in the family or maybe ‘I might be a candidate in a few years time' because Russ's mother had it died at 67, his sister has it too. So there may be a fear at the back of their mind that it could be in their genes.
Jan: In among it all your close friends become closer. For us our family has become much closer. My relationship with my mother, which was always fraught with the odd, you know, tensions which relationships with mothers often are and she's been just wonderful. She's eighty-nine and she is just the most wonderful friend and support through it.
Gwen: As soon as the girls all got together they said ‘Get ready, we're taking you out on Friday. We're going to the RSL, Hazel will pick you up and Dot will bring you back home.'
Anne: I know that there are various people around me if I'm facing a crisis at any point in time, that I can ring and someone will be on my doorstep in a matter of minutes. It's very important to know that you've got that support wait there at the end of a phone.
Judy: We each had our own strengths and weaknesses, so when one was feeling that they couldn't keep going the other would get up and go and take over and do something. And on the odd occasions we needed time out - because you become very tired - and even though it was a very limited time we actually had her from diagnosis until she died, we still needed that little bit of a break and there was never a question asked between us that we took that break .And we just hopped in and helped wherever we could.
Jim: I've got some wonderful grandsons and they're beaut. They say ‘come on Nan, how're you going love?' Give her a kiss, you know.
James: We've got three kids, a daughter and two sons.
Jan: The children and I have talked about, I suppose, lots of just relationships within the family and you know, what's happened. I think they are lots of things we wouldn't have talked about if Alzheimer's hadn't have happened, I think we would have all gone about our busy ways.
Anne: We all live in the same house, but the children really don't have anything to do with him. I mean they will sit around a table and we all have dinner together but they don't talk to him, they don't have any expectations of him anymore. Which is very sad, but it's the way it has to be and they have adapted to it remarkably well.
Ellen: His children are not as concerned as they used to be about their father or about how I'm coping, there's been a bit of a cooling and maybe there's a suspicion in their mind that it might be in the family or maybe ‘I might be a candidate in a few years time' because Russ's mother had it died at 67, his sister has it too. So there may be a fear at the back of their mind that it could be in their genes.
Jan: In among it all your close friends become closer. For us our family has become much closer. My relationship with my mother, which was always fraught with the odd, you know, tensions which relationships with mothers often are and she's been just wonderful. She's eighty-nine and she is just the most wonderful friend and support through it.
Gwen: As soon as the girls all got together they said ‘Get ready, we're taking you out on Friday. We're going to the RSL, Hazel will pick you up and Dot will bring you back home.'
Anne: I know that there are various people around me if I'm facing a crisis at any point in time, that I can ring and someone will be on my doorstep in a matter of minutes. It's very important to know that you've got that support wait there at the end of a phone.
