25 Quotes by Sally Hepworth

I’d always found there was something agreeable about people who liked dogs and something untrustworthy about those who didn’t.

One thing you didn’t realize until you were a grandparent was that little children were a tiny glimpse of magic in a dreadfully difficult world. They had to be disciplined, sure, but they also had to be enjoyed. Parents worked so hard these days that often they didn’t make time to enjoy them, but grandparents knew better. The days were long and years were short, that was what everyone said these days.

It’s the truth. Ollie and Nettie would never help me. I’m their mother, which means in our relationship they will always be children, and will only see things from their own perspectives.

Dementia isn’t the only place that memories are found to be flawed – people find out they can’t rely on their memories every day. People blindsided in relationships. People who find out their truth is a lie. People pulled from trauma. People awakened, as in Anna and Eve. I wondered: If you can’t use memories to steer your life, what can you use? I didn’t know. It was why I had to write this book.

It’s funny, even though we’ve just been discussing dementia-related stuff, for the last few minutes, it didn’t feel like either of us had dementia. It felt like we were just a guy and a girl, discussing life.

The less perfect things were, she was finding, the more likely they were to be real.

I never had a good answer to Mom’s question. ‘If I don’t remember, will I have been here at all?’ But maybe her question was flawed. Maybe it doesn’t matter what you remember. Maybe if someone else remembers and speaks your name, you were here.

Life is too short not to kiss.

Some people jumped in and tried to save someone who was in trouble; others did anything they could to save themselves.