Alzheimers Memory Walk in Levin. Photo / Ashleigh Collis
I wish to provide a different story about living with a person with early onset dementia. My mother was diagnosed as having Alzheimer's in her early 50s. She is now in her mid 70s.
Like Frances Barber, my mother lived life to the full. She was an avid gardener, a cyclist, a hands-on mother and grandmother to my nephews and nieces, and a nurse. Today she is fully dependent. She cannot feed, toilet or change herself. She doesn't know who I am.
In fact I am many persons to her. When she is sad I am her mother who she seeks comfort from. At other times when she is chatty I am a girlfriend, sometimes I'm her niece. At the end of the day, we love her through all her changes and there are many.
Mum can't make choices, so we have made the choice to give her our time while she is still with us. Would she have supported assisted euthanasia, I don't know. I doubt it. I had my children many years after Mum began showing signs of Alzheimer's. So they only know the Nana with Alzheimer's. And they accept her the way she is.
I recall wanting God to heal my mother for so long and then realised she was perfect the way she is. I would ask that instead of a law change, maybe we need to consider changing the way we view Alzheimer's and dementia. We must not fear it, as David Barber would suggest, but learn to embrace and support those who are experiencing the dementing process.
Tiana Wharawhara, Kerikeri.
We read, "Helicopters grounded out of respect for dead helicopter pilot". In my culture, to show respect the helicopters would have gone hard out to complete the mission the pilot died for. Is respect the new word for politically correct?
Randel Case, Bucklands Beach.
If I require to have the low-pitch, high-adhesion roof of my house repaired, repainted or replaced, I now have to spend thousands on elaborate scaffolding. This is to reduce the excuse for unskilled and possibly stoned hire hands to draw accident compensation.
Meanwhile, on the roads thousands of tourists, many with sham or nominal licences and no experience of local conditions, are, without any special precautions, free to career about at will, inflicting dire injury on locals.
The difference; commercial interests stand to gain hugely from the vastly expanded make-work scaffold industry. Commercial interests do not stand to gain from driving tests or similar precautions likely to discourage tourists.
Bob Culver, Avondale.
I imagine that your correspondent Dr Janet Mansfield believes in freedom of choice in other aspects of life, just not in education. Rather than criticising Government for "pandering to parental choice", much more should be done to foster real choice, fairness and accountability in our education system.
State schools hold a virtual monopoly and real choice is only available to those families who are able to pay private school fees.
A way forward is to adopt the concept of "money follows the child" or as it is more commonly known, "the education voucher system". It is a simple but powerful idea where parents are given a voucher that they can redeem at any registered school of their choice.
Parents are then able to lever some real accountability. They can choose to invest their educational dollars in schools that get results and meet their child's needs.
Suddenly, overnight, schools become far more parent and family focused; the educrat's power and influence is reduced commensurately. School performance and educational outcomes rise.
S. M. Kennedy, Principal, Manukau Christian School.
Gone are the days of ordering a simple beverage of hot water infused with roasted, ground coffee beans. Now ordering coffee is like filling out a prescription for a complex medication and waiting for a three-course meal.
The nonsense of all the faddish drivel that now accompanies what was a simple pleasure reflects the moronic personalities and sheer cussedness of pathetic people who have little better to do with their lives.
Max Wagstaff, Glendowie.
Since when has homosexuality been a "chosen lifestyle" as your correspondent Tony Molloy seems to believe? Homosexuality is no more "chosen" than being left-handed or follically challenged. And the Pride Festival has nothing to do with "promoting" homosexuality but is rather a celebration of the diversity of human sexuality.
It is attitudes such as Mr Molloy's that engender division and secrecy when society is at last moving towards inclusion and openness.
The issue of HIV infection is an issue for the whole community as is the exploding rate of diabetes. The use of PrEP (pre-exposure prophylaxis) is a sensible step forward and could in fact eliminate HIV infection from future generations. God forbid that attitudes like Mr Molloy's stifle sound thinking and action.
Keith King, Onehunga.
Simon Challies and his fellow Ryman Health directors' behaviour is that of corporate bullies. Their huge development is not welcome in our area with our traffic problems already dire.
Lake Rd is at gridlock. How can they think this monster building will not impact on our area? Ryman Health has not listened to a whole community. What chance for a single elderly person living there to raise a concern?
Robyn Gaw, Devonport.
Arthur Taylor, "lawyer" for the 196 inmates subjected to strip searches, has described the action as "cruel, degrading and disproportionately severe treatment or punishment" and perhaps aspects of it were, but I'm pretty sure the six stabbed prison officers didn't think so.
Prisoners are often subjected to cruel and degrading punishment delivered by their fellow inmates in the form of violence, sexual assaults, extortion and intimidation, which in many cases would result in prison terms if committed outside prison.
David McCullough, Howick.
Congratulations to your correspondent G N Kendall for an interesting letter about Russia. About 200 years ago, my father's Swedish family became the unwilling subjects of the Czar of Russia when Russia seized the Aland Islands from Sweden.
Given my family history, I feel great sympathy for anyone or any group of people trying to escape from Russia and, being an avid reader of history, I have noted how Russia has seized land from all of her neighbours.
All that is in the past and, now under a new President, the US has pulled out of the TPP. New Zealand needs to actively seek trade with Russia. We have many products Russia could purchase and by concentrating on trade we can prove to Russia that we are not hostile. If Russia can be coaxed away from military adventures, the world has a much better chance of avoiding war.
Johann Nordberg, West Auckland.
A journalist recently wrote that John Key's strength and also his weakness was that he ran the country as a business and I can understand that. There are two fundamental flaws in the business model. Firstly, one in four businesses fail and, in most businesses, domestic debt running at half a trillion dollars would be considered a failure.
Secondly, commerce and profit must override personal feelings. It is clear in New Zealand people have become pawns from which maximum profit can be made (talk to any real estate agent).
The most tangible evidence of that is Auckland, where vast numbers are now renting or being forced to leave (in some cases being paid to leave) and are being replaced with the much wealthier new immigrant.
Gary Hollis, Mellons Bay.
Yet again Seven Sharp suggests foreign drivers do a driving test before hiring a car at the airport. Newspapers have raised this again too. I am a Kiwi but lived in Australia for nearly 50 years and having lived and driven in USA, UK and Hong Kong for much of that time, I never experienced a problem anywhere.
Regrettably, since returning to New Zealand, I have discovered indicators are surplus equipment on most cars and passing lanes are designed so that New Zealand drivers can accelerate and prevent people passing.
So stop blaming overseas drivers for all accidents and look at the qualifications of New Zealand drivers too. I'd love to see the reaction of New Zealand drivers when stopped at Beijing, for example, and asked to undergo extreme driver vetting before being allowed to enjoy their vacation.
John McIntyre, One Tree Point.
Former Act president's lawyer claims sentence was too harsh, calls for home detention.