In response to my post, Helping Your Alzheimer’s Patient Create Memories, Kaye, of SandwichINK, shared her thoughts on this topic.
What a great idea to spend time reminiscing and writing it down to share with the grandchildren. I did get a book for grandparents to record their memories and filled in some of it with my dad. I just wish I’d started it sooner.
 Yes, Kaye, those grandparents’ memory books are great.  They’re a good way to start in recording memories.  Often they’re all that you need. 
And most of us, I think, wish we’d jotted down or recorded more of the …read more

We’ve chatted before about helping your Alzheimer’s patient create memories and the pleasure this can bring the whole family.  I mentioned in that post the use of photos to stimulate memories or give you both something to chat about.
You also may want to play around with your photos…making faded ones more visible, correcting mistakes in current ones, cropping them, printing just one or two people from a group, etc.
My daughter has been having fun playing with her Christmas gift, Photoshop Elements 7, as she experiments with photos and gets ideas for her quilting and fabric art. It’s amazing what all …read more

Many Alzheimer’s patients have memories of Pearl Harbor, the attack on December 7, 1941 that precipitated the United States’ involvement in World War II.  Some fought in the war, others worked in war related industries on the home front.  Children helped with Victory Gardens, learned about rationing, air raids, and black-outs.
I was a child during those years of World War II and give talks about this era to those who have no memories of it. 
“Write down your memories about World War II,” someone told me.  So I’ve begun doing this so that my daughter, grandchildren and future generations will have …read more

AlzheimersNotes.com
THURSDAY THIRTEEN
“Alzheimer’s patients bringing joy!” you exclaim.  “No way.  That’s a horrible illness for patient and family.’

However, my family and I discovered that caring for Mother and Auntie, although frustrating and time consuming, did bring us joy and laughter.  We hope we contributed pleasure to their Alzheimer’s world, too.
Let me share the ways:

We all learned to laugh at life and the situation to lighten our load.  “We don’t laugh enough, “ Mother once remarked when we chuckled over some incident brought by Alzheimer’s.
Caring for others brings us closer in a different way, I discovered.
We learned to appreciate a tea party at the …read more

AlzheimersNotes.com
Since Alzheimer’s patients, at a certain stage of the illness, often live in the past, why not incorporate this family legacy into time travel for the youngsters in your household this summer?  Take advantage of the Alzheimer’s member’s memories…record and scrapbook them for your family legacy.
However, youngsters are familiar with time travel books so popular nowadays.  Why not do some time travel as you delve into these memories?

Find places on a map that Grandma tells about.
Research how she lived when she was a little girl
See how far back you can follow your family tree
Find out about those eras and what …read more

AlzheimersNotes.com

Preserving our memories and those of Alzheimer’s patients can lead to scrapbooking fun.  I led a scrapbooking activity for Alzheimer’s patients at a nursing home and think they had as much fun as I did.
With the help of an activity aide, we selected pictures taken of the residents as they engaged in various events at the home.  The patients exclaimed, “That’s me!”
If they were able, they cut out the pictures and selected the colors of the background.  We pasted the photos and embellishments to the pages, one or two for each resident.  Then they shared with one another before we put …read more

A series of personal Alzheimer’s experiences put together by the Alzheimer’s Society.
Sue

Daphne

Peter

Sheila

AlzheimersNotes.com
May you have a blessed and lovely Easter holiday, however you may be celebrating.  This is a time to share memories with your Alzheimer’s family member and to create new memories.
When Mother resided at the nursing home, they had an Easter egg hunt, usually the day before Easter, and invited young children and grandchildren from the families to participate.  I recall Mother watching them, smiling and commenting, “Such good children.”
I don’t know if she had any idea what they were celebrating, although perhaps there were glimmerings of memories.  She’d been a school teacher before I was born and always enjoyed youngsters and …read more

CBS news has an interesting article and video about children growing up around Alzheimer’s Disease.
It highlights the fact that Alzheimer’s is a disease that affects people of all ages and generations.

AlzheimersNotes.com (A Poem)
Mom! Mom!
Don’t slip away
Into another world,
Another time in life.
Stay! Stay!
In today’s world;
We need you here
With all of us.
 Why?  Why?
Does this happen?
You lose your memory
And slip  far away.
Mommy!  Mommy!
Granny’s fun;
She tells us stories
When she was small.
(c) 2008 Mary Emma Allen