'They've made a grand job of Shap Wells. Is the car outside?'
Of itself, not a startling or unusual comment but when it's said by your husband four days into a Mediterranean cruise, it comes as a shock.
After a long career devoted to working on their Cumbrian farm, Eddie and Jackie Huck are determined to make the most of their retirement. When dementia strikes and progresses at great speed, their dreams are destroyed.
As Eddie rapidly loses his grasp on reality, Jackie is determined to care for her husband. But, as this cruel illness shatters the man she loves, she is forced into situations that she could never have envisaged.
This is a true story. It's also an important one because these events could happen to anyone.
With extraordinary honesty, Jackie Huck explores two traumatic years in the lives of a devoted couple whose lives are devastated by a disease that is still little understood or supported.
As she discovers, there are many paths to tread but no map for this uncharted journey with dementia.
'Our main strength is love.
Love keeps us going when courage fails;
love is there in the middle of the night
when the long hours of darkness stretch ahead.
Love holds us together when hope is gone,
and it is love that carries us through to the end.'
