Dad has had vascular dementia for eight years and has been in a care home for the last two years.

In many ways, we have been lucky as his bubbly and charming personality hasn't changed and he still recognizes his family when we visit him.

But his condition has got worse over lockdown.

If dementia behavior was measured on a scale where you become more and more like a child he would probably be pre-school now.

It means that, like a pre-schooler, he will do and say things that are meant to make people smile.

For instance, when we visit him and take him out for a walk along the Seaford beachfront, he will start reciting poetry with great gusto and lots of animation (but only the following lines).

- Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
- Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

These are lines 5 and 6 of DAFFODILS by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH. I expect he learned it at school in the 1940s and if prompted with the first line can recite several verses

I wandered lonely as a cloud
That floats on high o'er vales and hills,
When all at once I saw a crowd,
A host, of golden daffodils;
Beside the lake, beneath the trees,
Fluttering and dancing in the breeze.

Alzheimer's Society is transforming the landscape of dementia forever. Until the day we find a cure, we will create a society where those affected by dementia are supported and accepted, able to live in their community without fear or prejudice.