Incredibly sad story on Margaret Thatcher

An article in the Guardian about the new book from Thatcher's daughter.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2008/aug/25/margaretthatcher.politics

In an extract serialised in a Sunday newspaper, she describes having to break the news of Denis Thatcher's death to her mother more than once. He died in 2003 of pancreatic cancer. "Dementia meant she kept forgetting he was dead. I had to keep giving her the sad news over and over again. Every time it finally sank in that she had lost her husband of more than 50 years, she'd look at me sadly and say, 'Oh', as I struggled to compose myself. 'Were we all there?' she'd ask softly."

 

Couldn't help but notice the spin, even in this story.

But then again, there was never an expose about Reagan's condition in his Alzheimer's. Nancy saw to that. We always saw Ronnie at his Gorby-prodding best in our collective psyche.

 

Read that this morning.. that's an awful way to go.

 

Politics aside, having to break the news to your mom that your dad died time and time again is just heartbreaking.

 

He didn't just prod Gorby. He whipped his ass. If Reagan really was as addled as some of you claim he was, it makes his two terms that much more impressive.

 

Tell me about it. Well, not literally that. But my father has had to mention to my grandmother on several occasions that my aunt died. And my aunt died in 1999. It devastated my grandmother and did so for years. In 2006, she suffered a stroke and her mind began to go quickly at that point.

Needless to say, she suffers from dementia. So does my great aunt.

 

Dementia is awful. My wife has an octogenarian uncle who suffers. It's sad to see -- he's physically strong (much like his son, who might have been an Olympic pole vaulter if not for the 1980 boycott) -- but he's mentally not 100% there. He was pretty lucid the last time we saw him (a year or so ago), and is aware enough to poke fun at it.

FYI, Reagan's daughter Patti Davis wrote a book about her father's bouts with dementia, called "The Long Goodbye." I haven't been able to bring myself to read more than a few pages at a time -- not because I'm a diehard GOP Reagan-worshipper, but because it's difficult for me to see a family going through that, no matter who it is.