Spaghetti Sunshine

David is Sarah’s granddad. Inside his head, the two amino acids Arginine and Tyrosine are at work: they control his memory, his recollections. Or rather: controlled. For a while now, he has been getting more and more forgetful. Sometimes he’s just missing words, sometimes whole sentences. He finds his car key in the vegetable drawer, doesn’t recognise himself in the mirror, mistakes his granddaughter for his cleaning lady. David has dementia, and in the control centre in his head, the two amino acids work overtime to preserve as many memories as possible and to maintain some order in the chaos. Sarah, too, is not willing to just stand by and watch her granddad, who she has spent so many wonderful moments with, disappear into his own world a little more every day. She supports him wherever she can, and whenever darkness descends on the «spaghetti» inside David’s head, she tells him about the sunshine days and so creates carefree hours where they can both forget that this illness will progress no matter what.

Spaghetti Sunshine tells a story about the manifold way an illness like dementia challenges sufferers and their families. It does so with a high level of sensitivity and reminds us how important it is not to lose our sense of humour even when times are hard.