Photographing Your Alzheimer’s Family Member…a Legacy of Love and Memories

“No, never!  I don’t want photos of Mother [Father, Aunt Suzie, etc.] with Alzheimer’s,” you exclaim.

Each person looks at this differently and the way they want to remember that family member.  Some don’t want anything around to recall the Alzheimer’s days.  Others don’t mind because many of these memories, even though perhaps bittersweet, are filled with love.

Possibly, during the very last stages of their life with Alzheimer’s if they look very ill, emanciated, and totally unlike the person you’d like to remember, you won’t want photos.  However, I find the photos of Mother during her Alzheimer’s years memorable, especially those taken with her great grandchildren.

We put together a photo album called, “A Legacy of Love” with Mother and her great grandchildren during visits to the nursing home.  Mostly they were smiling and that often brought smiles to her lips.  One I particularly like a nurse took of Mother and me, laughing as we looked at cards she had received.  Another portrays the four generations…Mother, my daughter, the two grandchildren and me.

Family photos of the various generations at various stages in their lives is part of my family heritage.  I have photos of great great grandparents with children and grandchildren.  Another photo that brings back memories is my grandmother, my aunt, and me.

And Mother, in her Alzheimer’s years, doesn’t look much different from my great grandmothers and my grandmother at the later stages of their lives…and they didn’t have Alzheimer’s.

So think about taking photos…and leaving a legacy of love and memories for future generations.