My family and other introductions

Well, here goes with the first blog post...
Tomorrow is my 41st birthday, and I've been thinking about starting a personal blog for some time and so, as a start to my 42nd year I'm starting this blog to put down some of my experiences and feelings about caring for my Mum who was diagnosed about two years ago with vascular dementia. I'm not claiming to be an expert on the subject, far from it. I'm learning every day what it means to deal with the symptoms and the consequences of dealing with this terrible condition which is slowly taking my Mum away from me.
Mum has been living with us for just under six years now since my Dad died. I know that, for a couple of years prior to his death, Dad was becoming worried about the Mum's memory. She's always been a bit of a scatterbrain but things were getting worse and she was getting forgetful about taking her tablets and not knowing what day of the week it was. At the time her Doctor assured her that nothing was wrong and it was just "her age" but Dad was not convinced. He's always looked after everything to do with the house and finances and Mum didn't even have a bank account until she started drawing her old age pension and so had no clue about looking after herself.
And then, totally unexpectedly and far too early, he passed away in June 2005, leaving us all devastated by the sudden gaping hole in our lives.
At the time of his death, Mum and Dad were visiting us on one of their many babysitting visits, looking after my daughter who was seven at the time. My work involves a lot of travel and in 2005 my husband was working shifts and hence the need for a babysitting service every time I needed to go away overnight.
It was my husband who suggested she came to live with us. It was the only logical solution to both her needs and ours too. (Let's be honest, having a permanent babysitter certainly made things so much easier!!!)
And so that, as they say, was that and we settled down into a new phase of our lives.
I think I've prattled on enough for now and so, if you are interested keep reading...