TORONTO -- When Margaret MacMillan was diagnosed with dementia more than five years ago, she felt like the whole world was watching.
“When I talk to people who are going through similar experiences, there’s an automatic kinship and I feel like if more people could understand what this is about we would all be better off.” MacMillan says her mother was a smart, stylish, funny, entrepreneur. And that’s still in her despite the disease.
Once an independent business owner, Margaret now lives in a retirement home and relies on MacMillan in new ways, including the occasional reminder of who is the mother in their relationship.Dementia, MacMillan said, is “terrible, cruel and unfair,” but she noted there is still so much joy in her relationship with her mother -- something no diagnosis could change.
“If people have a negative perception of dementia then it will prevent others who are newly diagnosed from going about and seeking the support and help that they really need.” “People are still able to go about living a proper lifestyle and able engage in daily activities as they have done before.”