Peter and his wife, Teresa, celebrate 25 years of marriage. The biggest hurdle they have faced is dementia

Hello, it’s Peter Berry here. Twenty-five years this coming Tuesday, tomorrow 25 September, we will have been married 25 years. WOW. It doesn’t seem like 5 minutes ago we were standing in the church. During those 25 years we have had many, many ups and downs as I suppose just about every couple has. We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, we’ve had fun and we’ve had bad times, but I think the biggest hurdle we’ve had to get ourselves over, over those 25 years, is getting dementia. Dementia came into our lives and caused a lot of problems. It created a barrier between me and my wife. In actual fact I suppose you could term it as a brick wall. When I was diagnosed this brick wall was built between us. We tried to get over it but it was too tall and it kept getting higher and higher. We decided to go around it when in actual fact it was endless, we never found the end. So, together, bit and bit, brick by brick, we made a hole in it. We made a hole in that wall called dementia and we managed to make a hole big enough so that we could get through. So that was probably our biggest challenge, overcoming or living with dementia. Now, when we sit in the evenings, we sit in our little room, dementia doesn’t sit in between us. That ugly little man that I often talk about doesn’t sit down in between us with his arms folded; he has to go to another room. And I suppose, it’s all about support, all about conquering things, all about helping each other. It’s not my dementia, it’s our dementia. And do you know what? I often say, me and my wife together we make one very, very strong person. Anyway, just congratulations to us for our 25 years of marriage and let’s hope I can get to another twenty-five. Thank you for listening. ‘Bye ‘bye.