Mark Piggott

Dementia brings a unique pain to the misery of lockdown

(Getty images)

Three days into 2021, an aunt texts to inform that my grandfather has died. In November he was admitted to hospital after a fall at the London flat where he has lived alone since the death of my grandmother in 2008. Just before New Year’s Eve he was tested for Covid-19 then sent home, only to be urgently readmitted when the test came back positive. By then my aunt and her husband had been in contact and were urged to isolate, causing a huge knock-on effect for the family.

Whether it was the virus that finally saw off this 97-year-old former station master, war hero and lifelong Stalinist is unclear, but as he’d tested positive a few days before dying that’s what will be recorded; just another statistic from a virus that keeps on giving.

My aunt asks me to break the news to my mother, who lives alone in Yorkshire and has Alzheimer’s. Phoning mum is out of the question: the thought of her dealing with the news alone unbearable. My wife agrees that I should drive from London so I can provide comfort and reassurance. So it is that just weeks after making the difficult decision not to visit over Christmas I find myself hugging the kids goodbye and heading up the M1, hoping I won’t be carrying the latest re-brand of Covid-19 as well as bad news.

It being Sunday, traffic is light and I am optimistic about arriving in time to see mum before she goes to bed. However just past Milton Keynes traffic grinds to a halt following a fatal accident. After three hours, enlivened only by a need to relieve myself up an embankment before the walk of shame back to the Citroen attempting to look nonchalant, the long queue is directed to make a U-turn and drive back to the last junction with hazard lights flashing.

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