Hi I’m Richard, and I’m a full time carer for my husband Peter following a stroke in August 2023.
I’ve been many things over the years from publican at the age of 20, classically trained actor, tech geek extraordinaire, and spent the last few years (since day 3 of lockdown) accidentally managing my local pharmacy. As you do! So the medical side of this conundrum hasn’t really thrown me as much as some.
We’ve been together for 27 years and had our civil partnership in 2008. We’ve not yet “upgraded” the CP as until 2021 Peter was a Church of England Vicar when he took early medical retirement, and the CofE is bloody stupid about some of these things.
Peter is 10 years my senior (well 9and a half); but I really am sick and tired of all the support workers that keep referring to me as “his son”
I know I picked a right doozy; his genetics should be damn well thankful he was never destined to breed because they are bloody awful. He had a heart attack in 2014, and the medical retirement was due to spinal collapse, post-stroke I’m lucky enough that he has 90%+ speech, language and brain cognition but 12 months on is still hemi-paretic on the left hand side.