By Reverend Steve Younger, High Blantyre Baptist Church

My dad has dementia. He has a double dose: Alzheimer’s as well as vascular dementia from strokes. He doesn’t always know me. Or my brothers. Or his wife of 60 years, our mum. He doesn’t always know himself. After his service as a regular airman in the RAF, he trained as a teacher back in civvies.

He had a full career in‘remedial Education’as it was then called before a second career as a minister. He remembers nothing of this. He was a linguist, fluent in seven languages. He remembers none of them and now has word-finding difficulties in his own tongue.

He was an accomplished accordionist and pianist who amazed me with the speed of his fingerwork, and now the co-ordination of knife and fork elude him. He is no longer sure of the mechanics of walking – how to start, how to put one foot in front of the other, which foot goes first, how to change direction, and how to stop once he’s moving. He is often bewildered and uncertain, sometimes lost and fearful and panicky.

It’s ironic that in the past, as a minister and minister’s wife team, with a strong faith and a deep commitment, my dad and mum helped many families journey along precisely the path he is now on himself. Several years ago, before this slow death gripped him, my dad began writing an autobiography and telling his reminiscences of the things that had helped all those other families. His was a generation that had to deal with some deep traumas and tragedies. So, what did dad and mum tell those hurting, grieving, longing-for-an-end families all those years ago?

That our God is‘immanuel’: the God who is with us, even through the deepest pain. That our God never forgets the needy (Psalm 9:18) and He never forgets their names (Isaiah 49:16). That our God never forsakes the needy (Hebrews 13:5) and He forever welcomes them (Revelation 21:22-27). That our God gives the needy a hope and a future (Jeremiah 33:3) and an eternal glory (2 Corinthians 4:16-18).

It helped then. It helps now. It helps me. It helps my brothers. It helps our mum. And my prayer is that it helps you, whatever your journey.