Dementia sufferer cries tears of joy when her daughter gives her a teddy – that talks with her late husband’s VOICE
As soon as the grandma-of-three was handed the teddy, she instinctively embraced it
A GRANDMA suffering with dementia can’t contain her emotion when she’s given a teddy which speaks with her late husband’s voice.
The heart-breaking video features Jean Walters, 83, snuggling up to the bear, which reminds her of her husband Dennis who died of lung cancer eleven years ago.
As grandma-of-three Jean walks into the living room, in Withywood, Bristol, she’s handed the special gift.
Her daughter Abbie tells her: “I got you a friend sat on the sofa. You can have him – it’s yours.”
Abbie’s little boy Ford, five, then adds: “Squeeze it, squeeze it.”
It isn’t until she embraces the teddy bear that she hears the voice-box saying: “You’re the best girl in the world for me,” in her husband’s voice.
The words have an extra-special meaning to Jean, as her husband used to write them down in letters during his time in the Army.
The childhood sweethearts, who met aged 12, were married for over 50 years and had three children together.
A month before Dennis passed away, granddaughter Abbie Webb, 27, recorded the touching voice clip.
Even though Jean struggles with memory loss, when she hears the voice she instinctively knows to hold the bear tight.
Daughter Abbie, who works as a nanny, remembered: “She was absolutely ecstatic.
“I got the teddy bear made for my grandma’s birthday in August 2005 because I wanted to do something nice. We are really close.
“She just cried and cried and cried when I gave it to her. She loved it.”
She added: “With her dementia, she gets quite confused with emotion and sometimes she loses track of things, so I imagined should was just going to say thanks.
“It shocked me and all of my family that she was that taken aback by getting it back.
“It has helped her through so much. She listens to the recording every day, in the mornings.”
Over a decade ago, the family made the recording of Dennis’ voice and put it into a teddy, which Jean used to cuddle up to on a regular basis.
Last month, the recording became so crackly that the family worried that it would eventually stop working altogether.
Thankfully, daughter Abbie was on hand to make the great-grandmother-of-six smile again.
She explained: “When it broke she put on a brave face and said, ‘I have had many happy years with it.’
“But I was distraught and I felt so guilty. It was something we couldn’t get back, with him having passed away 11 years earlier.
“She told me to sew the teddy bear up and said she would just have that, but I really wanted to get it fixed.”
Abbie added: “I would like to thank Brian from Talking Product Ltd. He went above and beyond to help us out and made it all possible. “