“It is Alzheimer’s.” In a tiny windowless office in the bowels of the hospital the air was sucked out of the room. My mum, Ferga, exhaled and said, “Oh God”, as I sat there feeling my world disintegrate – she was the epicentre of my heart. The appointment was brief; there’s no intensive treatment regime to follow, no chance of a cure. We renamed it Ally-Zee – Alzheimer’s is such a loaded word; it’s heavy, sad and scary, and we wanted to disempower it. I knew that as I sat with her stroking her hair she knew she was loved and that she loved me.

Source: The Irish Times February 17, 2026 16:51 UTC