“I still remember sitting with her in her apartment…quilting while she told me her entire life history. I wish I had the sense to have had a tape recorder, but alas, I did not,”Susan Lazear says, as she relates her experience in a blog entry about restoring her grandmother’s quilt.
How many of us wish the same…that we’d recorded stories and memories of parents, grandparents and other relatives who are no longer here to tell us about our heritage?  Or we wish we’d at least jotted down some notes as they told stories.
These family stories are precious.  When we hear parents and …read more

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

Alzheimer’s Triumphs

As I recall my experiences with Mother and Auntie and read some of the comments I receive here at Alzheimer’s Notes, I realize there are small triumphs, or joys, if we’ll but recognize them…and remember them.
Write them down in a notebook.  You can read them when you have frustrating days and add to them as you go along.  I find, even several years after Mother and Auntie’s deaths, that remembering these incidents can bring a smile and fond thoughts about these ladies.
Amanda says:  I’ve worked with demntia patients in a nursing home, and it’s very sad to see what …read more