We take it for granted but memory is fundamental to everything you do. Our house always smelt of baking when we were little and I used to love helping mum make cakes and there were always cakes in the tin. But she phoned me up at 3 am one morning just crying her eyes out. She said, “I’ve forgotten how to make cakes.” My childhood sort of went then.
Fiona Phillips
We are all made of our memories.
The type of music we end up loving, the taste and smell of things that remind us of certain experiences in our lives, the memory of a place and the weight it holds in our heart, the significant highlights that are forever stamped in our minds… it shapes and makes us the person we are. It makes us human.
These memories also help remind and push us in tough times. In moments where we’re on the brink of giving up – the smell, taste, place, set of words, or just the memory itself – it reminds us of why we do what we do.
- What is your memory of your loved one’s memories?
- When was that defining moment where you knew?
- What is it that helps you get through the motions?
“We take it for granted but memory is fundamental to everything you do. Our house always smelt of baking when we were little and I used to love helping Mum make cakes and there were always cakes in the tin. But she phoned me up at 3 am one morning just crying her eyes out. She said, “I’ve forgotten how to make cakes.” My childhood sort of went then.” – Fiona Phillips
“The ultimate problem you have to face with anybody with any form of dementia is that you lose them before they die. I lost my mother 18 years and 2 months before she died. And that’s the ultimate desperate tragedy of it, I think.” – Sir Michael Parkinson
Watch Sir Michael Parkinson, Fiona Phillips and Gordon Banks talk about the importance of memory, the most memorable moments of their lives and their experience of having a loved one with dementia.
