A care free life we all deserve
THERE is a picture at the top of our stairs of my two lovely boys with their grandma.
Our eldest, Theo, is cuddling her, his arms also flung around his brother Nathan, still small enough to be wearing blue dungarees.
Cathy wears her familiar smile, delighted at being smothered in love by her grandsons.
It’s a picture I treasure of a wonderful lady who became my friend as well as my mother-in-law.
It’s the last picture I have of Cathy with Theo, now nine, and Nathan, seven, and I love it. There is no sign of the vascular dementia she was suffering, no clue to her memory loss, the bewilderment or occasional fear. It doesn’t give away the pain my husband and her three other grown-up children felt as their mum struggled with this terrible disease.
The priority at that time was that Cathy was cared for properly and in as nice an environment as the family could find. The fact that Cathy, who was 82 when she died two years ago, lived in Scotland made a difference.
For us it meant the Scottish Government contributed to the fees for a nursing home I’M old enough to remember Liz Hurley sashaying into the premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral in that incredible dress held together with gold safety pins.
Twenty five years after being catapulted to stardom it’s her lookalike son Damian who is grabbing the headlines after his first photoshoot, aged 17. He’s the spit of his mum with cheek bones sharpp enoughg to cut butter and skin so fresh daisies da must wilt as he w walks past. And that ha hair.
In April he was on In Instagram wearing his mu mum’s camouflage-style to top. And she is skinny en enough to wear his jog joggers when she’s ls slobbingo around the hoh house.
Makes M you want to Hu Hurl-ey, doesn’t it. of the family’s choice. Care is very expensive and the assistance helped ease the hefty financial burden at a time when no one should have to be worry about paying bills. It also gave some protection to the legacy Cathy a nd her late husband Hamish wanted for their grandkids.
Their savings weren’t completely devoured by care.
But in England, one in three people with dementia have been forced to sell their home to pay for care, according to a survey out this week.
Almost 30 per cent of relatives report spending more than £50,000 on care, while six per cent had to find £100,000.
Anyone in England with dementia who owns a house or has £23,250 in savings gets no financial help.
There will be people who argue that the state cannot fund everything and relatives have t o manage t heir expectations.
Promise
But what it comes down to is anyone who has worked their whole life to bring up their kids, hold down a job and pay a mortgage deserves to keep their home.
The NHS promised cradle to grave care and it is time the Government delivered on that promise – whatever the cost to the rest of us.