This searing memoir, written by a son about his mother's dementia, is
set in a town in the Netherlands but the issues reflected are relevant
anywhere. The family are devoted, but the mother's decline reveals
undercurrents in their relationships. We hear of the conventional
medical approach to this difficult area of care but the family reject
the medication so frequently prescribed to control patients.
For a while, they care for her themselves at home but her increasingly
erratic and sometimes violent behaviour overwhelms them. The
tribulations of caring for a person with dementia are vividly
recounted. The son feels that his mother is trying to tell them about
her past through her dementia.
Gradually, they come to know about the traumatic events in her
childhood. Her siblings and the narrator's wife also have vital roles
in the 'play' the mother is enacting. Although she ends up in hospital,
finally the truth emerges and the past is movingly redeemed