How I’ve Coped With Olu Jacobs’ Dementia — Joke Silva

Veteran Nollywood actress, Joke Silva, who has been married to her colleague, the legendary actor, Olu Jacobs, for over three decades has revealed how she has been coping with the octogenarian’s fading health.

According to Silva during a chat with media personality, Nancy Isime, she said sometimes the person she married isn’t there 80 per cent of the time due to dementia.

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The thespian said, “Olu Jacobs currently battles with dementia. We have been married for 37 years but we have known each other for 42 years. We were dating for about 4 or 5 years before we got married.

“When it comes to my husband’s health, I have to be very honest, it has not been easy. In the early years when it first started, we had not realised that it had started. We were like, ‘why is he behaving like this. What is happening to you?” but when the deterioration became rapid, you did not want to see me at that time. I always used to cry my eyes out.

She continued, “But then, there came a point of acceptance that this is it. It is what it is. It was almost like the person you married, 80 per cent is no longer there. The thing is this, when he was there, he was an amazing husband. He was practically my best friend and I could share anything with.

“In this journey now, it is like I am looking after my father. That is the way it has become. The husband that I knew is no more there but this man that is here is somebody that I still love, but love in a different way.”