My Name is Norrms, and i have dementia

Norrms

Registered User
Feb 19, 2009
5,631
0
Torquay Devon
My Name is Norrms, and i have dementia, but before i had dementia, do you know who i was or what i have done ?? if not, why not ??

When i left school my first job was as a painter and decorator but i was scared of heights so that didnt last long!!

I applied for the RAF but was turned down because of childhood heart problems

I worked in Cordon Bleu, Asda, and the Cotton mill as a Mule Piecer (this is when i was made to grow up, though some still say i haven’t yet Ha ha)

I drove a Four and a half ton Lansing Bagnall Fork lift truck for year`s in the good inwards dept of Automotive products.

I once woke up in a bedsit after being made redundant as was so fed up of being out of work and skint i packed a knapsack, a tent and a few things on a Tuesday morning and hitchhiked it to Dover, there i caught a ferry to France,72 hours later i was in Bordeaux, on my own, and lived there for a year !! i picked cherries, grapes and worked in the kitchen of various restaurants.

I came back and there was still no work so i went to live in Dublin and Country Clare for a year to work on farms and in pubs

Back on English soil, after meeting my angel Elaine, i did various temping jobs, as this always paid but a few bills and put bread on the table as they say, this including the wonderful jobs of packing frozen burger buns, packing pens in pencil cases, sorting out soiled sheets from the operating theaters in our local hospital and even spending seven days, sat on a box in a warehouse cutting down the whiskers of Lion king Toys because EU rules stated they were too long !! I KID YOU NOT !! Ha Ha



Ive worked in a paint factory, a paper mill, came down to Devon and filled shelves, collected hotel laundry before finally working at Focus Do it all and becoming a manager, something i am very proud of even today as i come from very humble beginnings and poor education.

My point is my friends, Dementia has only played a very small part in my life , as it does in anybody’s life, but the lives they have led before are wondrous!!! exciting !! Sometimes dangerous!! and sometimes downright SILLY !! But yet they have been lived !! these are not just stories that need to be told, but also need to be listened to and remembered!!
Please all, the next time you speak and sit with somebody who has this awful disease, ASK them what it was like growing up, and i can assure you, no matter how well you think you know them, they will always be able to tell you that little something you didnt know before !!!



Much love, Norrms Mc Namara

Diagnosed with dementia aged 50, now aged 58
 

jan.s

Registered User
Sep 20, 2011
7,353
0
72
Please all, the next time you speak and sit with somebody who has this awful disease, ASK them what it was like growing up, and i can assure you, no matter how well you think you know them, they will always be able to tell you that little something you didnt know before !!!

So true Norrms. There is more to life than dementia. X
 

Optomistic

Registered User
Jul 24, 2014
127
0
Manchester
Lovely post Norrms my husband has Alzheimers and loves to talk about his time in the Navy. It really good to look back on your life.
 

Grannie G

Volunteer Moderator
Apr 3, 2006
81,443
0
Kent
I wrote Dhiren life history when he went in the home Norrms. To say the staff were surprised at the varied adventures in his life is to put it mildly.

It`s good to remember what life was before dementia. It gives everyone a better idea of the person in front of them.
 

Countryboy

Registered User
Mar 17, 2005
1,680
0
South West
My Name is Norrms, and i have dementia,

My point is my friends, Dementia has only played a very small part in my life , as it does in anybody’s life, but the lives they have led before are wondrous!!! exciting !! Sometimes dangerous!! and sometimes downright SILLY !! But yet they have been lived !! these are not just stories that need to be told, but also need to be listened to and remembered!!
Please all, the next time you speak and sit with somebody who has this awful disease, ASK them what it was like growing up, and i can assure you, no matter how well you think you know them, they will always be able to tell you that little something you didnt know before !!!

Much love, Norrms Mc Namara

Diagnosed with dementia aged 50, now aged 58

well Norrms you are certainly proof that after a diagnoses for eight years your brain is fully functional able to understanding the meaning of words and writing and talking so eloquently.

personally I was never great with words possibly because left school age 15 and was absent for approximate 18 months to 2 years from school working , but like you although I was diagnosed several years ago with alzheimers my brain is still active enough for practical things i need to do so yes we can live on with dementia
 

BeckyJan

Registered User
Nov 28, 2005
18,971
0
Derbyshire
A great post Norrms. Its lovely to hear more about you and wonderful to see you can write about your life despite dementia. I am sure you will add to this when you are ready. :)

Take care Jan
 

Julia B

Registered User
Apr 13, 2015
79
0
Hi Norrms, that is a heck of a life, and your words were exactly the poke in the eye I needed, MiL has great stories of coming over from Ireland aged 14, and I need to focus on the bits she does recall, not the current bits that have drifted off, thanks Norrms, big huge Geordie gal hug x
 

beverrino

Registered User
Jan 12, 2015
1,110
0
what a wonderful and fascinating post to read Norrms, so good of you to share it with everyone.
you have such a positive attitude and its so good to read. wishing you many more adventures xxx
 

jimbo 111

Registered User
Jan 23, 2009
5,080
0
North Bucks
Hello normms
Good thread
thank you
your comments made me think of the poem
" A Crabbit Old Woman"
jimbo


" A Crabbit Old Woman"


What do you see, what do you see?
Are you thinking, when you look at me-
A crabbit old woman, not very wise,
Uncertain of habit, with far-away eyes,
Who dribbles her food and makes no reply
When you say in a loud voice,
I do wish you'd try.
Who seems not to notice the things that you do
And forever is loosing a stocking or shoe.
Who, unresisting or not; lets you do as you will
With bathing and feeding the long day is fill.
Is that what you're thinking,
Is that what you see?
Then open your eyes,
nurse, you're looking at me.
I'll tell you who I am as I sit here so still!
As I rise at your bidding, as I eat at your will.
I'm a small child of 10 with a father and mother,
Brothers and sisters, who loved one another-
A young girl of 16 with wings on her feet,
Dreaming that soon now a lover she'll meet,
A bride soon at 20- my heart gives a leap,
Remembering the vows that I promised to keep.
At 25 now I have young of my own
Who need me to build a secure happy home;
A woman of 30, my young now grow fast,
Bound to each other with ties that should last;
At 40, my young sons have grown and are gone,
But my man's beside me to see I don't mourn;
At 50 once more babies play around my knee,
Again we know children, my loved one and me.
Dark days are upon me, my husband is dead,
I look at the future, I shudder with dread,
For my young are all rearing young of their own.
And I think of the years and the love that I've known;
I'm an old woman now and nature is cruel-
Tis her jest to make old age look like a fool.
The body is crumbled, grace and vigor depart,
There is now a stone where I once had a heart,
But inside this old carcass, a young girl still dwells,
And now and again my battered heart swells,
I remember the joy, I remember the pain,
And I'm loving and living life over again.
I think of the years all too few- gone too fast.
And accept the stark fact that nothing can last-
So open your eyes, nurse, open and see,
Not a crabbit old woman, look closer-
See Me.




A Nurse's reply

"To the 'Crabbit Old Woman"
What do we see, you ask, what do we see?
Yes, we are thinking when looking at thee!

We may seem to be hard when we hurry and fuss,
But there's many of you, and too few of us.

We would like far more time to sit by you and talk,
To bath you and feed you and help you to walk.

To hear of your lives and the things you have done
Your childhood, your husband, your daughter, your son.

But time is against us, there's too much to do
-Patients too many, and nurses too few.

We grieve when we see you so sad and alone,
With nobody near you, no friends of your own.

We feel all your pain, and know of your fear
That nobody cares now your end is so near.

But nurses are people with feelings as well,
And when we're together you'll often hear tell

Of the dearest old Gran in the very end bed,
And the lovely old Dad, and the things that he said,

We speak with compassion and love, and feel sad
When we think of your lives and the joy that you've had,

When the time has arrived for you to depart,
You leave us behind with an ache in our heart.

When you sleep the long sleep, no more worry or care,
There are other old people, and we must be there.

So please understand if we hurry and fuss -There are many of you,
And so few of us
 

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