The Tee-shirt by Maxine

I’m going to a dementia day next week.

This diary is about my new T-shirt … the T-shirt with a logo which says: The heart never forgets.

I usually don’t have T-shirts with logos but now I have one.

I used to go to a voice camp where I take just the clothes I never wore and I’m gonna take this T-shirt to the Dementia Day and it’s the only one I’m taking with me otherwise I might duck out of it!

Do you ever get seen as the old woman? the old man? the old something?
Do people who see you, ever think you’re conventional, traditional that you don’t know how to use a computer and you’ve never heard or used a swearword?

Do you ever get seen as ‘The person living with dementia?‘
Is that the story people see when they don’t know you?

And what’s that story about for them?

On this dementia day people will see the T-shirt and if anybody wants to say something about me or point me out or even notice me it’s gonna be the T-shirt.

I don’t usually care what I wear and how people see me but I don’t ever want to be the one who’s living with dementia, that isn’t who I am.
It’s just one part of my life, one stage in a life that’s been changing for as long as I remember

AND, whenever anyone sees the T-shirt maybe they’ll think or know or will find out something and if that happens it’ll be much more important than me … or the T-shirt.