This wife’s reaction to her husband being referred to the memory clinic reflects the paradox of a diagnosis: the possibilities for a sense of control, however fleeting, that comes from being offered reasons and explanations for a set of symptoms and behaviours; while also sitting alongside the fears, anxieties and essential unknowns regarding what the future holds in light of hearing the words, ‘you have Alzheimer’s disease’: a degree of worry that may cause you to choose not to hear them at all. The moments in which these paradoxical interests and concerns meet are often during assessments and consultations that occur in the memory clinic, where patients, families and clinicians navigate the sticky terrain of diagnosis and prognosis. This process requires connections to be made between the label (the diagnosis), the presenting set of difficulties or challenges, and the meanings associated with them for individuals, families and clinicians.