Letter from my terrace in Palma 10 A triumph
14
February, 2018
Good
morning
I saw
a programme on UK television recently. Today
is St Valentine’s Day and so it seems right to mention it. We all enjoy a love
story and this was one of the finest I have come across for a long time.
A
husband and wife, now retired after busy lives in the theatre, were going along
a canal in a boat. But this was more
than a canal journey. It was a triumphal
progress. It was a masterclass in how to tackle dementia and old age. There was no rush, for canal journeys have
their own rhythm, but it was a slow-moving lesson in what love can accomplish.
Probably
the pace was too gentle to be enjoyed by anyone under 50 unless they have a vivid
imagination and can understand what it is like to lose one’s agility and
reflexes and, more importantly, one’s memory.
For those older than 50 it says, ‘Look.
Watch this, and when things become hard to deal with, remember what can
be done!’
So the
programme is about canals, boats and canal locks but it is really a quiet and
gentle lesson in how to tackle an illness which is hard to accept.
Let me
explain.
Now in
their 80s, two well-known actors, Timothy West and Prunella Scales, take a boat
along a canal. The journeys begin in the UK but later adventures are in Europe
and even in India. Prunella is suffering
from dementia and instead of hiding this, she and her husband show what can be achieved.
Timothy says ‘Pru’s memory is not what it was’ at the beginning of the
programme. Prunella simply adds ‘It’s a bit of a nuisance but it doesn’t stop
me remembering how to make the skipper a cup of tea.’ Then nothing
more is mentioned.
They negotiate
locks, pass fields and villages, gaze at mountains and valleys and comment on
the scenery as they go. They chat to
each other about what they see and they remember other canal trips they have
made.
They simply
get on with the job in hand. Cheerfully. They enjoy what they are doing and how
well they do it!
Yours
sincerely
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