For me, demented Mum was an absolute delight. Having been terrorised by her for most of my life, to the stage where I couldn’t hug her any more without feeling nauseous, Elis turned into a sweet little girl. She was childlike in her mannerisms, really loved being visited and developed a sing-song-y way of talking. She would ask what day it was and be so surprised! Then five minutes later she would ask again and be so surprised again.
She would take great delight in receiving things, like a new cookbook. She would spend hours going through cookbooks, putting little slips of paper in to mark recipes she would never cook. But she didn’t know that.
Some days Mum was very aware of what was happening to her, and others not at all, in fact,
