Caring for a partner with dementia takes a heavy toll. Try holding on to the moments of joy

Holding on to the positive memories and shared moments of joy may help cope with the losses and difficulties of caring for a partner with dementia. Photograph: Juan Ramon Ramos Rivero/Alamy

I’m losing this wonderful man whom I’ve loved and lived with in harmony with for 60 years. Hardest of all, I cannot talk with him about it, when once we talked about everything and could make it right together. This time I’m alone.

Freya’s* heartbreaking description of the haze that dementia was drawing between her husband and her lingered with me long after our conversations. A fiercely independent and capable woman in her 80s, she was relishing retirement years with her husband after successful professional lives and raising children together.