Somebody I used to know

For the past few years I have been travelling into work by bus. It’s almost an hour each way and the only way I could cope with this was by reading. I read to and from work every working day and went through hundreds of books until one day I had to acknowledge that I was just reading for reading sake and couldn’t have told you the plot of a book half an hour after I had finished it. This has now changed and, thanks to my daughter for the recommendations, I am now addicted to podcasts. My favourites so far are Mothers of Invention (dealing with climate change and the women who have or still are doing amazing things to change this), The Moth (an eclectic range of people telling their own stories), Desert Island Discs (an old favourite) and Women’s Hour (another old favourite). My reason for bringing this up in a blog is that one way last week I listened to Wendy Mitchell (author of Somebody I used to know) talking on the Women’s hour podcast about her early onset dementia and how it had not only affected her but also changed her personality. This afternoon as I was prepping for tonight’s dinner I had the radio on and this episode was again on the radio. I cannot say how much I was moved by this lady’s story. As someone who is at the wrong side of 65 dementia is something that is always subconsciously at the back of my mind (forever wondering if my losing my keys yet again is the start of dementia or just that I am trying to do too many things at the same time) but this lady was relatively young when her dementia began and her story since then is truly to be admired. I am now keen to read her book, Somebody I Used to Know, and to learn more about this amazing lady.