Poet inspired by mum who lives with dementia

Margret Bollerup and her mum Roberta.

Math and Stats department assistant Margret Bollerup is also a published poet. She is pictured above with her mum, Roberta, whom she describes as: former physician, fierce friend, intrepid Guider, and general firecracker, now lives with mixed (Alzheimer’s and vascular) dementia. Roberta’s husband Bryan is her main caregiver, but it is a testament to the quality of her mum-ing that neither of them seems able to shoo Margret away, or convince her to stop feeding them soups.

Marget’s poem “Dementia and common household objects” was featured in Best Canadian Poetry 2020 and was originally published in The New Quarterly.