blog
Challenges
We are still the same people.
I went to the supermarket with my girlfriend just to get some bits and bobs. I just walking down the aisle, coming to the other way was this guy I know from way back: he used to work for me way back. He just kind of looked the other way and shuffled off, quick, as though he never knew me.
I think the old stigma hit home again. I don’t think he wanted to talk to me, or maybe didn’t know how to approach me, or was maybe a little bit frightened. I don’t know, but sometimes it just hurts a little bit when you think about the past and how you get along with people, and then suddenly because you’re diagnosed with this thing called 'dementia', in some shape or form you become an alien. I really do think it needs to be opened up, this thing. Again to harp on about things . . . Just to let people know that you are still the same, come what may and all the rest of it.
We are still the same people.
I couldn’t be bothered to tell him that, should be intelligent enough to know that anyway, but apparently he wasn’t. Anyway, another one bites the dust.
An audio file of this blog is available at: https://soundcloud.com/dementia-diaries/paul-2-nottingham-uni
Paul Hitchmough
Musician
Dementia Diaries
Paul is amateur musician, from Liverpool. Paul was diagnosed with dementia in February 2014, at the age of 61. He was alone at home when the consultant arrived, an experience he recounts in his blog 'Diagnosis'.Paul's blogs form part of a national project called 'Dementia Diaries'. The Dementia Diarists use custom-built reporting phones to share their experiences of living with the condition. For more of their stories, visit dementiadiaries.org or @DementiaTweets
