The Leveson Centre for the Study of Ageing,
Spirituality and Social Policy
Sometimes dementia can mean freedom
In his column in the Church Times, the Revd Dr Giles Fraser, team
rector of Putney, wrote about his Gran who has lived with dementia
for some years. The following extract provides food for thought.
… in her care home she has persuaded fellow residents that
she was once a nun … To complement her new identity she has found
a remarkable silver lurex wraparound top … Dementia has brought
about an Indian summer of happiness in what has been a tough and often
unhappy life. Those who suffer from dementia often lose their worries
about what other people think of them … those who, like my Gran,
have fought against a debilitating sense of social inferiority all
their lives, are released from this dreadful burden. We hear a great
deal about old people's homes being God's waiting rooms … But
for (Gran) it may be the place where she has finally come into her
own … Only now as she looks after her fellow residents and starts
to experiment with her wardrobe does she give some indication of the
sort of person she might have been, had she been liberated from her
demons. I wonder: could it be, for some of us, that it's only when
our schemes have all gone foggy that we are released to be the people
God really wants us to be?
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