It is one of the weirdest things of life when one buys maternity clothing for a wife to whom one has been married 38 years, and who has Stage 7 dementia.
Since Jans progression into advanced dementia has grown, and she has lost the ability to walk and recently even to crawl, and to add to that, her upper body has stiffened greatly.... well, it is very difficult to find clothes for her!
Jan was always elegant and wore lovely clothes. I remember as a lad of 19, two years before we were married, running around all the quality department stores of London... Harrods, Harvey Nick's, Fenwicks etc, all to try and find a Jean Varon evening dress to surprise her with. Never did get it - or in those days, even to pronounce "Fenwicks" correctly, much to my embarrassment!
So now, when I need to replace her wardrobe from time to time, I want the clothes to be as elegant and feminine as possible. One problem is the washing machine at her care home that seems to be of industrial strengh and only running at the hottest temperatures!
Also, her pads and hip protectors rather define what sort of trousers she needs!
But for those we have found some really nice tracksuit bottoms at British Home Stores. The problem with such things these days is that abysmal fashion of showing navels - not nice in younger women who tend to have bad posture, and dreadful in older ones. The tracksuit bottoms we found at BHS are longer than today's norm, and perfect.
But what to have her wear on top? The care staff all say how difficult it is to dress her in tops because her body goes rigid, and the tops get torn very quickly.
Marks & Sparks have some excellent cotton tops in their latest collection, though the tops too could do with more length [midriffs again!]. The care staff say they are perfect for Jan.
Which brings me to the title of this posting. Nina had the brilliant idea of suggesting we look in the M&S maternity section, and we found some excellent tops there - designed to expand, and ideal for a younger dementia person.
Since Jans progression into advanced dementia has grown, and she has lost the ability to walk and recently even to crawl, and to add to that, her upper body has stiffened greatly.... well, it is very difficult to find clothes for her!
Jan was always elegant and wore lovely clothes. I remember as a lad of 19, two years before we were married, running around all the quality department stores of London... Harrods, Harvey Nick's, Fenwicks etc, all to try and find a Jean Varon evening dress to surprise her with. Never did get it - or in those days, even to pronounce "Fenwicks" correctly, much to my embarrassment!
So now, when I need to replace her wardrobe from time to time, I want the clothes to be as elegant and feminine as possible. One problem is the washing machine at her care home that seems to be of industrial strengh and only running at the hottest temperatures!
Also, her pads and hip protectors rather define what sort of trousers she needs!
But for those we have found some really nice tracksuit bottoms at British Home Stores. The problem with such things these days is that abysmal fashion of showing navels - not nice in younger women who tend to have bad posture, and dreadful in older ones. The tracksuit bottoms we found at BHS are longer than today's norm, and perfect.
But what to have her wear on top? The care staff all say how difficult it is to dress her in tops because her body goes rigid, and the tops get torn very quickly.
Marks & Sparks have some excellent cotton tops in their latest collection, though the tops too could do with more length [midriffs again!]. The care staff say they are perfect for Jan.
Which brings me to the title of this posting. Nina had the brilliant idea of suggesting we look in the M&S maternity section, and we found some excellent tops there - designed to expand, and ideal for a younger dementia person.