Veteran Nollywood actress, Joke Silva, in a recent interview, has disclosed how her husband’s battle with dementia has affected their relationship.
The actress while speaking on a TV show recently talked about how she felt dealing with the ailment in its early stage, “well I have to be very honest, it hasn’t been easy, in the early years when it first started we don’t even realised it has started, we just were like why are you behaving like this? What’s happening to you? But when the deteriorations became a bit more rapid,you didn’t want to see me that time”
“Then came the point of acceptance that this is the reality and it’s almost like the person you married 80percent of the time is no longer there.” She noted.
Joke in her words, said her husband is, to his children, an incredible father and to her an amazing husband before his deteriorating health condition “when he was there, he was an amazing man, my husband is an incredible father to his children and an amazing husband, he was practically my best friend and I could share anything with him.”
In handling the condition the veteran disclosed that it now feels like she’s tending to her father as she now loves her husband in a different way, “in this journey now, it’s like I’m looking after my father, that’s the way it become. The husband I knew is no more there but this man that is here is somebody that I still love but love in a different way.”
Reacting to her story, most Nigerians praised Joke Silva for different reasons. Some praised her for her honesty. Others lauded her for her commitment to her husband, her steadfast ( and obvious love for him) in the face of his health challenges. Almost everyone used the word, ‘courageous’ to describe Silva’s revelation. Courageous, because in our society people tend to hide away relatives with certain illnesses or to lie about their illness and most times dessert the ailing party.
Recall that, the ever fabulous Joke Silva revealed in an interview in 2021 that her fellow veteran actor husband, Olu Jacobs has been suffering from dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB).