How I came to write Dad, You’ve Got Dementia
Dad, You’ve Got Dementia is in two parts. Part one is a series of conversations I had with Dad on the phone and in person up until 2019; the second part is a series of vignettes about our time together from January to July 2019 when he was in residential care.
Dad was diagnosed with dementia in 2016, although the signs began as early as 2011. He died in 2019. For much of his illness, I was living in London and from 2015 made annual trips to visit him. I also called him regularly from London.
I started to write down some of the insightful things my father was saying, such as, ‘I’m not where other people’s memories are’ and ‘I need to tidy my mind’. By this stage I belonged to a writers’ group in London, so I brought these pieces along to the group.
In 2019 I took leave to be with Dad in Aotearoa NZ while he was in residential care, and some of these in-person visits are in Dad, You’ve Got Dementia, completed once back in London, in 2020.
Photo credit: Anna Macfarlane
Author bio
Kristen Phillips is a writer and dementia books reviewer. Dad, You’ve Got Dementia: Conversations with my father (The Cuba Press, July, 2023) is her first book.
Kristen Phillips was born in Aotearoa NZ, of Scottish and English descent. She has lived most of her adult life with the writer Mia Farlane in London. After winning the poetry category of a South London writing competition, she went on to attend several courses at The Poetry School.
Currently based in Te Whanganui-a-Tara, she reviews fiction and nonfiction for The New Zealand Dementia Foundation and works for Dementia Wellington. Dad, You’ve Got Dementia is her first book.
Photo credit: Juniper Gibson