This Carers Week, a Ballarat author asks us to see the people holding on
New short story collection Stranger With A Spoon puts dementia carers at the centre of the story
BALLARAT, Victoria — They are the ones who know which cup Dad will drink from, which song settles Mum at sundown, and how to answer the same question for the twentieth time as if it were the first. Most of their work happens behind closed doors, unpaid and largely unseen.
This National Carers Week (11–17 October), Ballarat author Dana Thomson is inviting the community to notice them.
Her book, Stranger With A Spoon: Stories of Long Goodbyes Through Carers’ Eyes, is a collection of fifteen short stories drawn from the lived experiences of people caring for someone with dementia. They include partners, adult children, siblings and friends, many of whom never expected to become carers and few of whom would describe themselves that way.
“So many carers don’t see themselves as carers. They’re just a husband or wife, a daughter, a friend doing what needs doing,” Thomson said. “That’s part of why they’re invisible. If they don’t name it, the rest of us don’t see it either.”
The stories grew out of Thomson’s work facilitating a project that mapped carers’ journeys through dementia. What stayed with her was less the clinical detail than the emotional weight: the grief, guilt, humour, exhaustion and fierce loyalty that rarely make it into conversation.
“These aren’t stories about dementia so much as stories about love, care and grief,” she said. “Carers keep showing up long after the person you’re caring for can no longer say your name.”
The title comes from a moment many carers know well: the day a loved one looks up from the table and no longer recognises the person feeding them.
An estimated 1.5 million Australians are involved in caring for someone with dementia. Thomson hopes Carers Week prompts people to look around them.
“Most of us know a carer, even if we don’t realise it,” she said. “Care for a carer can be simple. Drop off a meal. Sit with their person for an hour so they can get out. Ask how they are, not just how Mum’s going, and then actually listen.”
Thomson will mark Carers Week with two events in Ballarat:
- National book launch with Collins Booksellers at the Old Colonists’ Club, Wednesday 14 October, 6pm. Tickets $5 per person. https://www.trybooking.com/DQIJS
- Navigating Dementia: A Carer’s Perspective, a free panel at the Ballarat Mechanics’ Institute on Thursday 15 October at 11am, part of the Victorian Seniors Festival. It brings together a local dementia support service and a carer with lived experience. Bookings: https://events.humanitix.com/navigating-dementia-a-carer-s-perspective
Thomson is the founder of Ballarat-based strategy and social impact consultancy Nourish Group, which published the book. She is also advocating for a dementia care navigator model for Australia, modelled on the McGrath Foundation’s breast care nurse program, so that no carer has to find their way through the system alone.
Stranger With A Spoon is available now from Collins Booksellers Ballarat, and online in paperback, ebook and audiobook.
ENDS
National Carers Week runs from 11 to 17 October 2026, celebrating Australia’s unpaid carers under the theme “Care for a Carer: Making carers visible.”
