Have finished the memory book, it starts in 1923 when mum was born and finishes with photos of her enjoying her 90th Birthday in August, when I put 90 candles on the cake and nearly set fire to the garden!!

I am sending a copy to each of my cousins as a Christmas gift, mum's story is theirs too and many of the memories about her siblings were unknown by their children so this has become quite a family history project.

Mum's letters have given me so much comfort, when I have a bad day I sit and read them and remember the girl full of spirit who left home for the first time to join the Womens Royal Airforce in 1943. She was just 19!
That girl is still there in her eyes, when she reads the book her lovely smile lights up the room. Dementia is a cruel decease, but all the time her memories of youth can be in front of her in photos and text, it really doesn't matter if she cannot remember what she had for lunch!

Her carers all read the book too, it helps them know who mum is, not the little old lady sitting in the chair but the loving daughter, wonderful wife and mother, doting grandmother and great grandmother. Margie, the 19 year old bride who danced round the bonfire on V E night, did the jitterbug on the airbase, sang along with Vera Lynn, rode a bike into a hedge because she didn't know how to use the brakes, married her only boyfriend who she met at 14 and enjoyed 67 years of a wonderful happy marriage. My mum xxxxx