Lucinda Holdforth

I do.

I'm the young old.

I'm two years off being the one in 12 with dementia, so I was at 63.

I want to do useful things.

And...

After Mum and Dad died and I decided to write this book, I realised I couldn't have written it while they were alive.

So now I have certain freedoms that I didn't have and that others don't have.

Couldn't have written it because you didn't want to hurt them?

Yeah.

I think Mum would have really objected to me writing about them.

In fact, I have put her in other books and she's rolled her eyes.

But I don't think she would have liked... She wouldn't have liked me being honest about that period of decline.

So it's interesting, isn't it?

So I want to do useful things.

I've got niece and nephew and two step-grandchildren who I adore and I've dedicated the book to them because I think about them and the kind of Australia I want for them.

So in terms of myself, I'm doing the sensible things.

I am one of the weightlifting women of the country.

So I go to my class twice a week and to my astonishment, I am doing, you know, deadlifts.

I didn't even know what a deadlift was.

LAUGHTER