The first inklings that something was wrong.

It was around 2006 when I thought something was not right with Beryl. She kept saying the same things over and over as if she had just mentioned whatever we were talking about for the first time. I took no action and let it slide, as it were.

In early 2007, around February or March, I was asked by my consultant to come into hospital for around a week as my skin complaint had burst out all over my body. They were treating me for Eczema but were stumped as how to treat it. I went into hospital with much trepidation. One thing that bothered me was that I could not smoke and a nationwide smoking ban was looming. I'll leave the smoking ban aside for the moment as my main concern was leaving Beryl alone for a week. Luckily there was only one blip where she was concerned. She phoned me up because she'd forgotten how to set the microwave. Anyway I found a place to smoke with the other smoking patients that was not too far away from my ward but had a run in with a doctor there who pointed out the no smoking signs outside and I told him in no uncertain terms that it was not against the law to smoke outside. He was and odious anti smoker and had upset one woman by calling her names.

The consultants eventually decided that I did not have Eczema but Psoriasis.

Anyway after I got out of hospital and been put on a drug called Azathioprine the symptoms soon went, I am on Azathioprine for the rest of my natural life.

The impending smoking ban took over my life as I was incensed that our government could be so cruel to force people, whatever their age or infirmity, out of pubs, clubs and bingo halls into the harsh British winter days and nights, especially using the mythical SHS fraud (Second Hand Smoke) to push through such draconian legislation. I went onto the Internet to find out if I was the only one that was opposed to such a dreadful and divisive law. I soon found out I was not alone.

I found a forum called The Big Debate that was soon to transform itself into Freedom2Choose. We then formed local Freedom2Choose branches for us to meet each other and form action committees in our local areas. I started the F2C North East branch which met at The Tardis in Redcar, not a million miles from where I live. After a couple of meetings there we moved to a pub in Drighlington where the manager and his wife were opposed to the ban and had a banner up on their building to say so. The Tardis went the way of most pubs after the smoking ban and no longer trades as a public house and is now a cafe. I now had to get on two trains and then a bus journey to get to the Painters Arms in Drighlington which was made all the more harrowing because you are not allowed to smoke on trains and now many train stations do not let you smoke on their open air platforms. It was still worth the effort though and I made many videos for Youtube about our meetings and watching those videos I could see something missing when I saw Beryl's eyes and demeanour, she seemed lost and not quite 'with it'.

It was late December 2007 when it was finally brought home to me that Beryl was entering a stage of dementia. She asked me where her mother was, a question that had me in tears as her mother had died in 1981, the year that Princess Diana and Prince Charles got married. How was I going to get her to see a doctor? That was my main problem as getting Beryl to do anything was a hardship so I had to resort to subterfuge because she was never one to bother doctors and had great physical health up till then.

To be continued...