Carers looking after a dementia patient say the only thing that makes her smile are the words ‘Cliff Richard’ – and they even where a Cliff mask to cheer her up.
Yvonne ‘Yvie’ Salisbury, 76, sometimes can’t recognise her own family but always recognises the ‘Living Doll’ singer.
Yvie, a retired shorthand typist, used to lived close to the star when she was a teenager living in London.
She never met Cliff, who lived near her house in Winchmore Hill, but admired him from afar and followed his career closely.
Now she suffers with dementia and sometimes can’t recognise her own family but always recognises Cliff – and her carers put on a mask of his face to cheer her up.
Yvie’s carer, Sarah Venn, 34, said: “She grew up on the same street as Cliff Richards and before now she forgot who she was herself, but she remembers who Cliff is.
“If she sees a new picture or an old picture, she knows who it is. She starts smiling immediately. I asked her what her favourite song was and she said, ‘I can’t pick, I love them all’.
“He was the boy down the road for her when she was growing up, so he’s stuck in her memory.
“She recognises her family most of the time but not all the time, but she always recognises Cliff.
“We put on the mask when she’s not in a good mood, it cheers her up. She has a Cliff Richards DVD and we put that on and dance around in the mask.
“She’ll talk to us and we can’t tell if she thinks we are Cliff, she’ll ask how we are and things like that. Other times she’ll just laugh.
“She mentions Cliff a lot, not stories but she asks how he is and if he’s going to come and visit.”
Yvie, a retired shorthand typist, has one brother and one daughter, Lynda, 53, who is the only person who comes to visit regularly.
Lynda a health and safety and facilities manager, from Ramsgate, Kent, said that sometimes Yvie forgets her name – but never Cliff’s.
She said: “She really likes Cliff Richards, she’s been a fair fan since she was about 15 or 16 I would say. Not his biggest fan but a fair one.
“She’s always like his stuff and lived just round the corner from him when she was growing up.
“They didn’t know each other, it was in the early days of his career. He was a successful musician then and everyone knew he lived there.
“She still recognises pictures of Cliff, I put a video of him on the other day and she instantly knew who it was. She still likes listening to his music, it perks her right up immediately.
“She suffers with dementia, but she also has MS which has unfortunately rendered her bed bound.
“She knows who I am, she gets my name wrong occasionally but she knows who I am. She’s normally alright with Cliff though.”