Dementia couple's remarkable story of love, commitment and an unusual bicycle | 60 Minutes Australia

welcome back to 60 minutes after 50 years together you'd think beel and gladys forwood had seen off all life could throw at them that was until gladys was diagnosed with alzheimer's disease eight years ago gradually bill has come to care for gladys more and more and today he does everything for his wife but it's not just what bill does that's so inspiring it's the way that he does it theirs is a remarkable story of love commitment and a most unusual bicycle [Music] ah does it feel nice you're here no yeah does it feel nice yeah this is our 50th year of marriage [Music] she's just just my girl that's all i don't know that i could make a list of the things that i love i love all of her i just love her for who she is rather than what she does there you go you got it she's my beautiful girl she would do you i will yeah i will what [Music] it's an old-fashioned love story [Music] after all these years childhood sweethearts bill and glad forward have an unbreakable bond [Music] i counted an absolute privilege at this time in my life to be able to look after this one that i love [Music] i just think i'm a promise keeper i'm no i'm no big deal i'm not a special guy [Music] i promised when we married that i would love her in sickness or in health until death do us part we need to stand ready one two three recently bill's seen his wife through more sickness than health seventy-year-old glad is one of the three hundred thousand australians suffering the terrible cruelty of alzheimer's disease that's lovely okay for the past eight years dementia has stolen more and more of her treasured memories [Music] i think of alzheimer's as a living death it steals the life out of a person without killing them you just watch these lovely things that were so normal so natural so part of just being who you are slowly being robbed away i mean it started off with ability to write it started off with the ability to read so those were the first signs of alzheimer's yes they were and what can happen one day as i wake up and suddenly what was there yesterday is not there today it's gone and it doesn't come back [Music] look at this photo aha that's my favorite that one so this is what i took with me to my training college she had one of me beside her bed and one day i came back on leave and happened to spot the one beside her bed and around my lips was as smudged as can be and i realized she'd been kissing my lips all the time i'd been away while glad gradually forgets bill has a lifetime of memories first time i saw her she was a little girl on the beach at burly heads and it turned out she had an older brother and i became his best friend and he's my best friend and so this one just tagged along behind as she grew up i grew up [Music] that's our very first date i'm 17 glad 16 and i can still remember that bolaro that you bought and you remember that like i did because i do why wouldn't i it was special they've traveled through life side by side working as missionaries bill and glad helped those less fortunate in the most remote corners of the globe we went to india five months after we were married so really that's where we established our home and it was lovely because glad at that stage had jet black hair she's lovely and petite and so when she put a sari on wow i ended up superintending a leprosy hospital that to me is one of the most fulfilling times in my life you spent 15 years in india and you had your family there we did we loved india it was our home i haven't worked very often but i wept when i left india do the hokey pokey turn around [Laughter] in one way or another bill has dedicated his life to being a carer but he's now 72 and his daughter debbie worries about how much longer he can keep looking after glad as her illness progresses he is my focus i see my role as looking after dad because i know that mum's well looked after i'm confident that as long as dad's there she's got the best of care but i have to make sure that he's okay he's a saint your dad he is saint william [Music] this looks magnificent it comes as no surprise that bill and glad have raised a beautiful family and between daughter debbie and son jeff they have five gorgeous grandkids what do you think of your pup [Music] [Laughter] cost me an awful lot of money um i'm gonna start crying um just brought all of us closer and like it's not sad with nano it's just a joyful experience and he's taught us to just enjoy every minute we have with her because like we're not sure how much longer she has they call it the long goodbye there we go how's that and with one australian diagnosed with dementia every six minutes it's a heartbreaking epidemic for debbie a regular thursday outing with glad is a weekly measure of how her mum little by little is slipping away it's been a bit wet hasn't it glad this is special time with debbie yeah yeah right there you know who you know who debbie is uh is it is it you no no no that's ally i'm here oh see debbie looks just like you [Laughter] someone explained to me a long time ago that it's like a city at night and you have lots of lights on and one by one those lights go out the city is still there but darkness sort of envelops the city mum's still there but the lights of her being as the mum that we know are going and what are you left with darkness and mums in there somewhere [Music] where's mum where's she gone i want mum back amid the darkness feels love for glad shines brightly and a short video about their story has become something of a youtube sensation would you have it any other way no no not at all we love each other but for most the burden is great one in four carers for people with dementia consider suicide [Music] that's the last thing on bill's mind he just wants to give his wife as much joy as possible anybody home ah g'day graeme right it has a very special treat every friday i take it to the hairdresser i smile when he gets the hair spray because i know she's going to say yuck and horrible and she's going to turn ahead and she doesn't like the hairspray but i do i it's a special treat and while she still can i do that's the name of my game while we can we do there you go look at me and what they love to do most of all is right this is a bicycle like no other specially designed by bill for his lifelong traveling companion a lot of fun we have so many people talk to us and glad being a people person when people come and chat with us she gives a giggle and they talk to her i bought mum the tiara for her helmet because we they used to ride along and mum would be waving like this at everybody and if they didn't wave back she'd go yoo-hoo so i thought you know what she she's a princess she's a queen she's royalty she needs something i laugh and glad last because we go past a little child and they see us coming little girls particularly their mouths open and they look and they say mummy the queen's going past and i say no no she's my princess and i'm william of course my name is william so she's my princess and she's always been my princess but now even more particularly there are some great heroes in our world and i'm not a hero i'm simply a lover i simply see that this is the girl i love this is the girl i will care for i'm in a position to do so i am fit i'm strong i'm healthy i can and while i can i will i will i don't want to live to be a hundred i want to live one more day after glad girls so that i can look after until she dies you know that's incredibly beautiful no no no no she's saying she's not beautiful hello i'm alison langdon thanks for watching to keep up with the latest from 60 minutes australia make sure you subscribe to our channel you can also download the nine now app for full episodes and other exclusive 60 minutes content

Channel: 60 Minutes Australia

Views: 184,165

Keywords: 60 Minutes, 60 Minutes Australia, Liz Hayes, Charles Wooley, Tara Brown, Liam Bartlett, Allison Langdon, Tom Steinfort, Ellen Fanning, Peter Overton, Karl Stefanovic, Ray Martin, Ross Coulthart, Ian Leslie, Gerald Stone, Sarah Abo, love, story, Alzheimer's, disease, memory, loss, 50 years, long term, relationship, in sickness, in health, together forever, carer, bicycle, riding, charity, support, old, couple, romance, community, awareness, feel good, funny, heartwarming, dementia, brain, mind

Id: OiyYgcWEsY8

Length: 13min 16sec (796 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 11 2021