Alastair Stewart: As I look ahead to 2025, I have one hope for my dementia
Alastair Stewart for Alzheimers Research UK
GB News
First and foremost, a happy New Year to you all and I hope that you, like us, had a great Christmas.
We had a full house with all our children and their partners coming for lunch: presents were plentiful, generous, and imaginative. Our daughter, Clem, and her husband Brian, commissioned a fabulous drawing from a vet friend of ours of our two donkeys, based on photographs they provided.
The artist, also a vet, captured their characters brilliantly. Our son Alex, and his wife Anna, gave me a box with framed photographs slotted into it. I can change and shuffle the pictures, and it sits on the window ledge in my study.
From the younger boys, I got a new bird feeder and a beanie hat with a lamp on it so I don’t get lost or fall over when walking in the garden or fields as the evenings get darker.
Some gifts ordered on Amazon weren’t quite right but that can be sorted. But beware you don’t automatically get signed up to Prime unless you want it.
Alastair Stewart reflects fondly his Christmas and expresses his hopes for 2025 in this week's Living With Dementia
GB NEWSLunch was a traditional triumph and, as my maternal grandmother, a former kitchen maid always did, we made a glorious soup from the remains. It served us well for two days.
We found mainstream TV very disappointing, but the conversation was terrific. The grandchildren and all their new toys were greatly amusing, too. We haven't done New Year for years - but we do enjoy the fireworks.
I enjoy scanning the New Year’s honours list for who got what and why. We were thrilled for our friends, Alan Titchmarsh, the great gardener who also does so much for good causes and the county we live in, and Alastair Bruce, a great soldier, courtier and public servant and the best TV commentator on state occasions there is. They both got CBEs. Some in the political arena seem less deserving, but the good and worthy outweigh them, and the general grumblers bore me.
It seems I have qualified for an attendance allowance; it is modest but the key to other modest help. An unexpected credit to my bank was an odd way to find out given I am getting it for dementia - you might think a better alert would help.
Speaking of alerts, the government issued a general dementia alert which was helpful: if anyone close to you seems over-forgetful, unsteady, or just not themselves get them to see their GP, you never know just how important an early diagnosis could be.
Our first-born grandson Jimmy also celebrated his birthday over the Christmas period which was a great party with friends and family.
So onward to 2025 blessed with a great family and army of friends.. so hopefully no further decline. Do look after yourselves - and those who love you.
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