I hadn’t realised that bereavement can come in stages. Because my mum had had Alzheimer’s disease for some years before she died last summer we had already lost a lot of her.

She was still herself, but when you’ve forgotten most of the things you knew about the world and your life, and when you’ve forgotten that you talked about the handful of things that you do remember just two minutes ago, you are sadly diminished. So when she died, it felt to me like a surprisingly small step, the completion of a journey we had already made some distance on….

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This is an extract from an article published in the Issue 1 – 2025 edition of Reform

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