Britain's "Iron Lady" Thatcher has dementia

Such a very hard thing to go through with a parent My Mom, who I keep 5 days a week suffers from this as well ...


LONDON - Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher -- once known as one of the world's most formidable political minds -- has been suffering from dementia for the past seven years, according to her daughter, Carol.



Carol Thatcher tells in her memoirs of how her 82-year-old mother, nicknamed the "Iron Lady" for her tough reputation, often struggles to remember things and repeats questions.

In a memoir serialized in the Mail on Sunday newspaper, her daughter paints a picture of a very different woman from the political heavyweight who strutted the world stage in the 1980s.

"The woman who had dominated discussions for so long could no longer lead debates or keep up with the thread of a drinks-party conversation," she wrote.

"On bad days, she could hardly remember the beginning of a sentence by the time she got to the end."

Thatcher rarely appears in public these days after being advised by doctors in 2002 that she should avoid public speaking following a series of minor strokes.

People suffering with dementia have a significant loss of the mental skills that affect daily life. It is caused by various factors such as strokes, tumors, head injuries and Alzheimer's disease and affects some 700,000 people in Britain, around two-thirds of them women.

Carol Thatcher said the first sign of dementia appeared when her mother was about 75, when she confused the Falklands and Bosnian conflicts in a conversation over lunch.

"I nearly fell off my chair," Carol Thatcher wrote, according to excerpts of the book which will be published next month. "Watching her struggle with her words and her memory, I couldn't believe it. She was in her 75th year but I had always thought of her as ageless, timeless and 100 per cent cast-iron damage-proof."

Thatcher took power in Britain in a general election on May 3, 1979, becoming the nation's first and only female prime minister. She left the famous Number 10 Downing Street office after a record-breaking 11 years in power.

At the peak of her powers in the early 1980s, Thatcher's sheer strength of personality made her one of the West's best known figures, famous for "handbagging" her opponents into backing her, or at least backing down.

Carol Thatcher wrote that one of the most difficult episodes in recent years had been the death of her father Denis Thatcher in 2003, which her mother often forgot had happened.

"Losing Dad ... was truly awful for Mum, not least because her dementia meant she kept forgetting he was dead," she wrote.

"I had to keep giving her the bad news over and over again."

so sorry to hear. dementia and alzheimer's are affecting so many families.

mdiver said:

i'm glad i missed this part of my grandmother's life.

Mach said:

mdiver said:

I have to tell my Mom several times each day that both her parents are gone as well as both her brothers ~ she must miss them a lot

She talks about them all the time as if they are alive and well

mdiver said:

Mach said:

I have to tell my Mom several times each day that both her parents are gone as well as both her brothers ~ she must miss them a lot

She talks about them all the time as if they are alive and well

That must be so hard, i remember similar times with my Grandfather. Some days it was easier for him to just not deal with the realisation again.

It is a terrible disease.
I remember when my ex husbands mother passed away at 63 unexpectedly. We had to tell his grandmother that her daughter passed away. Her daughter was caring for her so we had to tell her that she passed away.
we were still dealing with the shock of her sudden death and we had to tell his grandmother every 10 mins that her daughter passed away. She kept asking us where she was.
It was tough to see her get upset that she outlived her daughter, her caregiver.


Tough disease.

Mach said:

mdiver said:

That must be so hard, i remember similar times with my Grandfather. Some days it was easier for him to just not deal with the realisation again.

It is very hard one of the many very hard parts

Many times my Mom thinks my Dad is her Dad
And she seldome knows directly who I am anymore. She thinks I am a childhood friend of hers

mdiver said:

Mach said:

It is very hard one of the many very hard parts

Many times my Mom thinks my Dad is her Dad
And she seldome knows directly who I am anymore. She thinks I am a childhood friend of hers

Mach said:

mdiver said:

And thank you for the past many many conversations to help me tread water and not feel so alone and terrified.

I can never thank you enough for that

Mach said:

mdiver said:

And thank you for the past many many conversations to help me tread water and not feel so alone and terrified.

I can never thank you enough for that

ehuffnsd said:

Mach said:

And thank you for the past many many conversations to help me tread water and not feel so alone and terrified.

I can never thank you enough for that

i'm not good at this kinda of stuff.

My Grandmother has it as well. Keeping her hydrated with plenty of water, a high protien diet with no beef but lots more fruits, veggies and soy products and the medicines Namenda and Aricept have bought her back to herself again.

She has been stable for 4 yrs now just forgets the days of the week but she can feed herself ( i cook), bathe and dress herself so it is not as burdensome for me.

I also placed her in a study that reveled that Blacks who have hypertension and all of us do in my family are 5 times more prone to the disease.

This is so sad.

rachel3 said: