I’m going to see her at half one today,” said Ted. Baryl has dementia and has lived in a nursing home for the last five years. Ted visits his wife every other day, and all he wants to do is put a smile on her face.

“I want to show her ducks, sheep, and cows.” Baryl loves nature, she always did. When Baryl moved in with Ted into their council house in the late 1960s, the first thing she did was get five geese for their garden. Four of these were dames, and there was one gander who went by the name of “Buffy.”

Baryl did not want to have children. However, both Ted and Baryl liked to see life go on with their animals in the garden, especially the rabbits. Baryl was a keen artist and her coloured-pencil drawings of both flora and fauna were successful in agricultural competitions. Ted has never won anything, but in his dreams, he would like to win a prize pig to mow his lawn!

Baryl was born when her parents were in late middle age. She grew up fast, doing both domestic chores and advanced DIY in her childhood home. She continued to help her parents plant potatoes, put up wallpaper and mend fences well after her wedding day.

Sadly, her father passed away just after their second wedding anniversary. Ted has fond memories of taking Baryl and his widowed mother-in-law on outings to wildlife parks. Baryl was an enthusiastic photographer who liked to take snaps of ‘straw figures’ on these family adventures. Tragically these days came to an end when Baryl’s mother died in the mid-1970s.

However, Baryl retained her zest for life. Music, both popular and classical, was her passion; Ted recalls how much she enjoyed the organ recitals which took place at Thursford. She used to go to see brass bands at Eden Park and listen to cassettes while she worked with white wash and creosote around the house.

Dementia changed everything, including Baryl’s personality, which is the aspect of his wife’s illness that has hit Ted the hardest. Yet, he hasn’t given up hope that a treatment or cure can be found – good on him!