The Honest Truth: Loving & Caring For a Parent with Alzheimer's - Michelle's Story.

“It’s a funny thing when someone tells you what you already know and then you think, no, I don’t want to hear that…There’s a relief and then at the same time, it’s like no, no, I don’t want it to be true, I want it to be wrong.” Michelle Spencer.

Michelle’s mum is 85 and has Alzheimer’s. Michelle’s been her primary carer.

Michelle’s story is absolutely hers but it’s far from unique.

Many midlife women are the primary Carer of their aging parents and with women statistically living longer than men (current Australian estimates are 85.1 years for females versus 81.1 years for males), it’s often our Mum in our care after having spent years caring for our Dad.

But Mum living longer does not always mean she’s living as well in her final years.

Here in Australia, dementia is the #1 cause of death and Alzheimer’s is the predominant disease under that umbrella. Australian sources estimate that Alzheimer’s disease accounts for roughly 50–70% of dementia cases, although the estimate is not a precise 2026 national figure.

Many older people have mixed dementia, most commonly Alzheimer’s pathology together with vascular changes. Therefore, Alzheimer’s disease may contribute to a person’s dementia even when it is not the only diagnosis.

For Women: Around two-thirds of people living with dementia in Australia are women; the prevalence is approximately 1 in 7 in ages 80–84, 1 in 4 at 85–89, and nearly 1 in 2 at age 90 and over.

Midlife Unfiltered — The Dementia Series

This series exists because there’s still so much we don’t know - not just in the medical and research world, but in everyday, lived understanding. These aren’t conversations we typically have. So we’re having them.

In this episode I sit down with Michelle, who has loved not one but two people with dementia - her mum, who has Alzheimer’s, and her father-in-law, who had frontotemporal dementia and passed away in 2014.

Michelle and I hope that by sharing her story it helps you to appreciate what it’s like loving and caring for someone with Alzheimer’s.