Borrowed Life Of Frederick Fife Quotes

You’ll never regret being kind even when people aren’t kind to you.

Mum had always told her that forgiveness had to be complete: “You can remember, but you can’t forgive halfway, Hannah darling.

Well, I guess you can’t always rely on feeling in love. That comes and goes. It’s a decision, too, you know. You have to look after it. The more you can make the other person feel loved, fill their tank as it were, the more they have in their reserve to make you feel loved.

Love is . . . about picking someone up and never, ever putting them down again, no matter how heavy things become.

Feelings are like flatulence: better out than in,

Grief is often invisible to the outside world—

Grateful for whatever you have, whether it’s a new car or a new packet of chips.

It said a lot about a person, the way they treated someone with dementia. A little bit of kindness and patience spread further than butter on a hot crumpet.

Grief was love with nowhere to go The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife

Late-stage dementia was like an empty house that the tenant had checked out of. It was the same distant stare his mother had had in the years before she passed away from complications related to early-onset dementia, the very cruelest of diseases that stole the mind and soul without mercifully taking the body as well.

Well, I guess you can’t always rely on feeling in love. That comes and goes. It’s a decision, too, you know. You have to look after it. The more you can make the other person feel loved, fill their tank as it were, the more they have in their reserve to make you feel loved. It’s a cycle. I used to try and plan little surprises when I could if ever things were getting stale.

Fred had learned all the tips and tricks over the years: never argue, go with the flow; never shame, instead distract; never condescend, always encourage. All the while, his heart was breaking.

His mother had always said that Fred had been born with an extra helping of love in his heart, and he thrived on sharing that love with those around him. The problem was now he didn’t have anywhere to put it. Grief was love with nowhere to go.

They say that time heals, yet the ache still caught his breath. Grief is often invisible to the outside world—Fred was like still water whose reflection mirrored the sun but concealed dark and murky depths underneath. He often wondered how his body still held together when his soul had broken into a million pieces.

But it will be an even stronger love, strengthened by the daily exercise of choosing each other. Not just a love that loves when things are easy, when you’re feeling happy. No, it will be an unbreakable love that continues loving when things are hard. One that loves through bad times, through loss, in health, and in sickness.

Please note that the story, setting and characters portrayed within these pages are completely fictional. The love is entirely real. The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife

Until he was widowed, Fred never realized that he’d taken physical touch for granted—yet it meant so much.

What a blessing sleep could be sometimes, a merciful relief from dementia, from pain, from grief. A brief holiday where there were no suitcases full of burdens to carry. In dreams you could forget that you didn’t remember, and remember those who were no longer there.

Memories were lonely on their own.

The single drop of pee made a pitiful splash. Fred sighed as he stood over the cracked toilet bowl that, like him, had seen better days. The public restrooms at Wattle River Reserve weren’t as dirty as he’d feared, though the walls hosted a colorful array of aging graffiti. Another couple of measly drips. Was there a job in the armed forces for people who could urinate in Morse code? If so, he’d be an ideal candidate, though it was unlikely they’d accept eighty-two-year-olds.

Well, I guess you can’t always rely on feeling in love. That comes and goes. It’s a decision, too, you know. You have to look after it.

... You’d be surprised how people treat you differently when you’re older. You don’t feel any different, but it’s as though you fade away, like a Polaroid picture in reverse. The Borrowed Life of Frederick Fife

You’d be surprised how people treat you differently when you’re older. You don’t feel any different, but it’s as though you fade away, like a Polaroid picture in reverse.