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Mummy dearest
As the Government’s new Dementia Strategy is unveiled, Angela Rippon bravely shares her own mother’s story to highlight one of the strategy’s main points — that the subject should be brought out of the shadows. Words by Serena Allott.
Photographs by Sukey Parnell
One look at the photographs Angela Rippon has spread out on the table, and I can see she must have inherited her round, high cheek–boned face from her father.
What she took from her mother, Edna, is immaculate grooming and style. It’s there to see in the photo of the two of them, heads together on the day Angela collected her OBE. It was 2001, Edna was 80 and bandbox smart in black and scarlet, a smile softening her serious features, her grey hair all crisp curls. “She’s lost a lot of weight since then, she’s very frail,” says Angela tenderly.
Edna was a career woman in her day. She ran the Wedgwood Room in Dingles department store in Plymouth, before moving on to manage Royal Doulton in another store. “When we went out anywhere she would automatically turn the china over to check the make, or flick the glass to see if it was crystal. I used to be so embarrassed,” says Angela. But she was also proud. “Mummy had staff responsible to her, she ran a business and she was very good at it. She was my role model; she gave me my work ethic and my desire to make something of my life. She was a strong–minded, determined woman. She still is.”
But now, aged 87, she has dementia. She can’t always remember what’s wrong with her, but when she is reminded, the old strength shines through: “Oh yes,” she says, “but I’m not giving into it, Angela. I’m going to fight this you know.”
Her deterioration was sudden and rapid; brought on by the death of her husband, to whom she had been married for 61 years. She never recovered from the shock.
“The first thing I noticed was that she became very anxious about time,” says Angela. “She would ask when we were going out, I would tell her and suggest what time she should start getting ready, but minutes later she would ask again. Eighty–five per cent of the time she was fine, but the anxiety was noticeable.”
Three years ago she approached her mother’s GP, who agreed that Edna’s memory was failing; a psychiatrist performed tests that confirmed dementia. “I told her and she read up on it, but I’m not sure she fully understood.”
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