Albert's Decline
19 February

This May my dad will be 83.

Which is a goodly, goodly age.

He is more or less exactly 30 years older than I am.

When he was 53, both of his parents were dead - and both of my mum's parents were dead. That generation thought that 70 was a good age and that anything over that was a bonus.

For the record...

• My mum's dad died in 1962 aged 67
• My dad's dad died in 1969 aged 72
• My mum's mum died in 1970 aged 77
• My dad's mum died in 1976 aged 77

Of their own generation...

• My mum's younger brother died in 1982 aged 61
• My dad's brother died in 1989 aged 61
• My mum's elder brother died in 1995 aged 76
• My mum's sister died in 1999 aged 74

They are the survivors. We are looking forwards to my mum's eightieth birthday later this year. During the course of this Journal, I've already recorded my dad's eightieth birthday, my mum's seventy-fifth birthday, my dad's seventy-fifth birthday and my mum's seventieth birthday. As in Prince Charles' phrase about Elizabeth Bowes-Lyon, they seem to sail gloriously on.

But dad is beginning to falter. Ross and I were over in the Wirral at the weekend visiting my parents. It being Half Term in Surrey, Linda and Mary were visiting. The six of us enjoyed a meal together and fed the ducks in a park in West Kirby in the February sunshine. And dad was more than reasonable for an 82-year-old. But he is discernibly less spry than he was even eight weeks ago.

Ross and I both noticed that he was losing himself in the middle of sentences at Christmas when they stayed with us. Now, it's gone a little bit further again. He gets more easily confused. His behaviour is a little more erratic. He gets upset with people serving him because they don't give him enough time to say what he wants to say - even when he loses the words that he needs.

I'm not a medical person and so I don't want to jump to any conclusions but, when my mum starts saying that she is concerned, then I sit up and take notice. The next step really is to find out if they have taken any medical advice. There are all sorts of reasons as to why Albert's short term memory may be faltering. Some of them are manageable. Some are not. And so, looking towards more long term support will not be a bad thing.

We finished the day by watching Flags of Our Fathers, Clint Eastwood's film about the men who took part in the re-enactment of the raising of the American flag during the battle for Iwo Jima. It is a sombre, grim, noble film. It observes but does not glorify war. It follows imperfect human beings trying to make a sense out of the madness in which they find themselves and trying to live as good a life as they can. So, it's an undoubted three stars but there was some muted about either it or me that does not want to push it up to being a four star film.