Huge, gorgeous smile which still brightens world

ON hearing that Barbara Windsor has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, a thought sprang to mind: I don’t think I ever saw her without that huge, gorgeous smile plastered from ear to ear across her face.

She lights up whichever space she’s in – whether at a “do”, during an interview or sitting alongside showbiz pals, her handsome hubby Scott, and sometimes Biggins and others, when they meet up for coffee in their local area, brightening the street with the laughter from their pavement table.

Inevitably, as time goes on, the symptoms of Alzheimer’s will make themselves known. Barbara will come across friends she’s had for years and not know who they are.

I recall my mum – who had early-onset Alzheimer’s - crying in the middle of a supermarket when dear friends she’d known since childhood hugged her, and she hadn’t a clue who any of them were.

Mum, always glamorous, started dressing differently, before eventually having to be dressed by someone else.

She loved home-baking, but phoned me at 3am one morning, crying because she’d forgotten how to make her famous Welsh cakes and bara brith. Sometimes there’s laughter; it was funny when my dad - who also had earlyonset Alzheimer’s - sang Patsy Kline’s Crazy at the top of his voice while shopping.

To Scott, I’d say it’s hard. But let her be. Try not to mourn for the Babs she was. Love her for who she is now. Until there’s a cure for this cruel disease, that’s the best anyone can do.