Margaret Thatcher Suffering From Dementia: Can't Remember Falklands War

LONDON — Margaret Thatcher's daughter says she first realized that her mother was having memory problems when the former prime minister struggled to distinguish between the 1982 Falklands War and the conflict in Bosnia.

In an excerpt from her memoir, due to be published next month, Carol Thatcher charts her mother's decline _ and describes the day in 2000 that she first understood her mother was being robbed of her memory.

"I couldn't believe it," Carol said in a selection published by The Mail on Sunday. "She was in her 75th year, but I had always thought of her as ageless, timeless and 100 percent cast-iron damage-proof."

Carol said her mother _ who is now 82 _ used to have a memory "like a Web site" but that dementia, combined with a series of mini-strokes, had opened "a new and frightening chapter in our lives."

"What was most galling was that there was nothing I could do: this cruel disease takes its own course," she said.

Carol said her mother's memories of the time she spent as Britain's leader from 1979 to 1990 remained among the sharpest. Even as she had struggled to recall an article she had just read, she could still engage in a lively discussion about former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev.

Carol said losing her father, Denis Thatcher, in 2003, was particularly hard on her mother, who kept forgetting he was dead.

"I had to keep telling her the bad news over and over again," she said.

Carol Thatcher says the disease has finally begun to eat away at her mother's memories of her time at top of British politics, too, but that her driver said she still perked up whenever he passed 10 Downing St., the official London residence of Britain's prime minister.

Margaret Thatcher largely withdrew from the public eye in 2002 on her doctors' advice, although she still occasionally releases statements. In March she was briefly hospitalized after feeling faint.

Carol Thatcher's book, "A Swim on Part in the Goldfish Bowl: A Memoir," is due to be published in Britain by Headline on Sept. 4.

Comments

[wordvarc]

We loved to admire Mrs. Thatcher.

I studied under Brian Griffiths, her economic adviser...her policies were as idealistic as the Marxism they despised...and maybe as unpractical...like Reaganomics and the neocon "trickle down" fiasco...

.

[LITU]

Dementia is a blessing for those with the most to forget.

[mal33]

God bless Lady Thatcher!

[mcnary]

Don't worry Maggie I can hardly remember it either.... keep on truckin

[smag]

It it’s wonder that there is so little accomplished in the country (politically speaking). Too many of our citizens prefer to call names or attack the person. We seem to have lost the ability to debate issues without allowing emotions (hatred) to block reasoning and arguments. The last hope of an ineffective argument is to attack the person not their argument or position. This is true of all sides of the political argument. Change is a nice word. But from what to what. Neither Dems nor GOP can claim any real specific ideas. It is all political posturing.

[LITU]

Let me try to put your pathetic argument in perspective. We're to hate the ideology but not the wielder of it? So, Stalin, who was responsible for many, many more deaths during his reign than the infamous Hitler, was an okay guy with a lousy viewpoint?

For your information, totalitari­anism/auth­oritariani­sm is intolerant of debate.

[CrittersRTasty]

What a horrible ending for such an amazing woman. My heart goes out to her and her family. I sincerely hope that those of you who are taking this opportunity to spit your venom at her are spared the horror of dealing with a similar fate.

[ramal]

Didn't always agree with her politics but always admired her style. Unlike Reagan she was her own person and not the product of her handlers. Like Reagan she should now just have the good grace to exit the stage completely.

[c1ee]

Isn't the medical term Alzheimer's? Or is this different case? Nevertheless, i feel so sorry for the daughter.

[ianrthorpe]

In this case I think the cause of lost brain function is a series of small strokes.


http://greenteeth.blog.co.uk/

[LITU]

Thatcher was a proponent of the Chicago School of Economics and destroyed British labor.

[big-v]

Maintaining that spiffy hairstyle over the years must have taken a few thousand truckloads of hairspray; not to mention stripped away numerous stratums off the ozone layer. Abject life lesson here children: Solvent abuse [ hairspray dependency ] tends to turn the brain to jelly! Not at all surprising her memory is shot...

[malbec]

Please next time mention that war as the Falklands/Malvinas war. That how we call those islands in Argentina. At least do it for the thousands of kids who died because of a military dictatorship.
Malvinas are Argentina!!
ps: I pray too for the innocent british soldiers who died in that stupid war.

[Big0725]

It is and always will be the Falkland Islands!

[MsLiz]

And I live in the colonies.

[cardineau]

What a sweet old lady ... She never let compassion inter in any of her decisions which affected so many.

[awcbuddy8]

Isn't that we want in a leader?

[SgtLucifer]

Never liked her. But I do wish her and family the best. Old age & illness happens (will happen) to all of us.

[MPeter]

Frankly, I feel nothing for her. She was mean to workers, people of humble means and, she was a warmonger. She killed a lot of people to get the farcical title of iron lady. Now Dementia has her. All the iron is gone.

[Bitsko]

I agree, and have no compassion for her whatsoever.

[peachfuzz]

Not to the soldiers killed in illegal wars.

[DrZane]

She may not remember the Falklands War, but she, at least, knows how many houses she owns.

[TakLoufer]

Hated her politics but my God, I saw her speak before Parliament one evening on cable news and she was riveting. Brilliant woman, tough as nails; too bad she didn't use that power for good instead of faith-based fascism.