Thank you to all the people who attended ‘Becoming a Dementia-Friendly Parish’ session at Corpus Christi on Wednesday 18th May. Growing Old Grace-fully was given such a warm welcome and there was lots of interesting and lively interaction which resulted in 20 people each becoming a Dementia Friend.
Dementia isn’t a natural part of ageing. One of the people we talked about was Christine Bryden, a top civil servant, who was diagnosed with dementia in 1995 at the age of 46. ‘My journey’, she wrote, ‘is to the inner self; to the reflection in the divine within. This is what gives me an abiding sense of meaning as I travel the journey from diagnosis to death.’ She’s now 66 and still giving talks about what it means to live with dementia. Christine Bryden’s books “Who will I be when I die?” and “Dancing with dementia” are published by Jessica Kingsley.
