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Motor Neurone Disease

People's stories

ALS- amyotrophic lateral sclerosis/MND aged 65+

Maryse - Interview 06

Maryse - Interview 06

Age at Interview: 74
Sex: Female
Age at Diagnosis: 72
Background: Maryse is a retired senior university lecturer, widowed with 2 adult children. Ethnic background/nationality: French.

Brief outline:Maryse was diagnosed March 2005. She was told she had 2-3 years to live. Within months she could no longer live independently and moved into a nursing home. Her speech deteriorated rapidly.

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She knows she's dying and so do her friends. It's frightening, but everyone has to die and she's lucky she has no pain.
Print You said that you realised you had a lot of friends. You were telling me that off tape before. How have different people reacted to you? How have these friendships changed or not? Most are shattered and frightened. But most of them have learnt to accept it for me. And when they come they ask, and if they can't see they ask for the changes, and I tell them. And then I say, “Turn the page.” That's my expression for no more. They all know I'm dying and it won't be long. So I say, “Right, turn the page. And what have you been up to?” and so on, and we don't mention it again. But they are very attentive to my needs, switching the TV on and so on. People are lovely really. But it is frightening, isn't it? So there we are. My philosophy is that a lot of people are going to die in the next week and they don't know it. And similarly a lot of people suffer pain. I'm very lucky, I don't. I've no pain which requires analgesic.

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