Norrms was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at age 51 and his writings have given all of us a rare insight into his world.

On a Day like today
 
After the weeks turmoil of one thing then another, my wife decided to take me away from it all for a drive over Dartmoor. We stopped at what I call "Devon's best kept secret" which is a smallish nursery called "Hillside".
The sun was just breaking through the clouds and all was well with the world. This is when I come into my own and I can spend hours in a place like this. It was busy but not too much of a distraction for me.
Many years ago I saw a blue aquilega called bluebird and it captured my heart but I had never seen it again until today.
I couldn't believe my eyes! There was my dream plant right in front of me and for only £1.85 for a 2 litre pot. Well in truth there were three of them so I snapped them up before anyone else could. I was so happy I could have cried, silly but true.
From there we went to Buckfast Abbey for Sunday lunch, the onto Widdecombe to enjoy the peace and quiet.
We stopped on top of the hill that looks down on Widdecombe village and got out of the car to sit a while. As I did my mind started to wander and as I looked up at the now clear blue sky with a gentle easterly wind brushing my face I found myself asking
WHY? WHY? WHY?
I was born a catholic and as they say will always be a catholic but after I was told I had heart failure in my early forties when everything was going so well it made me question my faith.
Then to be told I had Alzheimer's at the age of 51 I nearly became an atheist!
As I stared up at the heavens I half expected the Big Fella to pop his head out and give me a reason why. But sadly this was not the case.
 
Unknown to me My wife had been trying to get my attention for the last 5 minutes and when she eventually did I felt a small bump in my back. As I turned around it was one of the wild Dartmoor ponies pushing its nose into the small of my back as if pushing me on.
Was this the Big Fella telling me to push on and don't give up? It was certainly a strange thing to happen as they are not usually that tame and it also let me stroke it for ages after.
 
When eventually we got back into the car I told my wife what I had been thinking and it wasn't long before we were both in floods of tears, but happy tears.
 
After all on a day like this anything could happen, couldn't it?

"tis better to light a candle than curse the darkness"