In the ward for young people with dementia, Geraldine Kemper meets 57-year-old Manon. She suffers from dementia and lives permanently in De Waalboog in Nijmegen, an institution for elderly care. Manon has been staying in the institution since the summer of 2022. But it is difficult for Manon to explain how she got there. “I just have the idea with Manon that she knows what she wants to say and that at a certain point she just can’t find the words anymore,” says a visibly shaken Geraldine.
Manon also has a daughter, Bernou, who visits almost daily. She takes Geraldine to her mother’s room where she immediately shows the photo wall: “This is mama’s wall of fame. Her boyfriend is on it and of course we are children,” says Bernou. Geraldine immediately notices that the look in Manon’s eyes has changed enormously. Bernou agrees: “You can really tell by her smile. It’s been less expressive lately.”
Before Manon is diagnosed with dementia, she suffers from burnout. “That really took seven, eight years,” Bernou explains. The extremely long duration of the burnout makes the family wonder whether it really is a burnout: “A year later, at the age of 53, she also had cerebrospinal fluid taken and then they were like: this is definitely know Alzheimer’s.”
Geraldine is touched by Manon’s story. “I look at this at the table and I see my mother and I see myself in you. That touches me quite a bit.” Bernou can understand that well. “It is sometimes very difficult,” she says with tears in her eyes.
Despite the fact that the disease causes a lot of grief, they try to make the best of it: “I am also really lucky with my mother, because she is such a positive, cheerful and sweet woman. Because she is so cheerful, we go there positive as well.”
Manon lives permanently in the institution, but once every two weeks she goes to her friend Maurice for a weekend. “She is very much looking forward to that,” said Bernou. Geraldine wonders if Bernou ever talks to her mother about the future. “Coincidentally last week. Another resident died here and that comes so close.” The residents at De Waalboog live there for an average of three years before they die: “These are those intense things.”
Bernou has been struggling for weeks to talk to her mother about the funeral, but that conversation eventually goes very well. “Then I am so grateful that mom is so positive and that those things are still possible,” she says, wiping the tears from her cheeks. Her words hit Geraldine hard: “I grew up with my mother alone, so for me my mother really has everything.”
Five Days Inside can be seen every Wednesday at 8.30 p.m. on RTL 5.
2023-09-06 19:29:24
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