"This is a double illness"

I am 84, my wife 83 who I'm slowly losing to the illness.

I know the road we are going down will be very difficult but you should hear how it is affecting me. It is the very little things that I miss, we have been 60 years married, and have made fun, nonsense, and laughed at each other all through that time.

But now she takes everything serious you cannot make a quip any more. Everything is the gospel, you have to bite your tongue before saying anything and it slowly destroys you as well.

This is a double illness - the patient and carer, and so many people don't know that.