She explained that her job was to make her mother’s life more bearable, and recognised that her mother was “inhabiting a parallel universe”.
Rippon elaborated saying: “I had to go to her universe and not expect her to continue to live in mine. For example, she would say, ‘I’m going to have tea with your granny this afternoon.’ Well, my grandmother died when I was about five.
“If I’d said, ‘But Mummy, Granny’s dead,’ she would have been really upset. Whereas it was so much easier for me to say, ‘Really? Are you going to have a cream tea this afternoon, then?’ and change the subject.
“People suffering from dementia get very upset and frightened and, as a carer, you have to listen and react appropriately. I learned there was no point in getting upset when she was particularly vitriolic to me. But just to let it wash over me.”
