After my mother passed away last month, with late stage dementia, I went in to clear her care home room and had a cup of tea with the manager, who had built a wonderful relationship with my mother.

I commented on how often I had seen her making residents laugh so much, she replied it was easy, as once you had a good joke, you could keep re-telling it every day or so, and get yet another laugh out of the resident.

It reminded me of the dark side, where the same old conversations keep getting repeated, and no one seems to remember it's been done umpteen times, and indeed been put to bed.