It’s not often you hear someone saying thank you to dementia.

Evelyn’s mum is fairly far on in the illness. Thankfully, she remembers her family as often as not, but she remembers them in a way she didn’t before.

“Mum was never an affectionate person,” she told me. “Some childhood trauma she acknowledged but never spoke about left her closed off and reluctant to express emotions. We knew we were loved – but she never told us.

“Then, we think, the dementia took the memory of that trauma away. Now she’s so affectionate and loving.

“It’s like the illness has taken away the mother we knew, but, for a little while, has left us the mother she might have been. It’s brought a whole new level to our relationship.”

They say every cloud has a silver lining. Sometimes, the darker the cloud, the more precious a gift the lining is.