The month of June has provided inspiration for activities with candy and cookies, flags and festivities, and summer and the seasons. Lady-Links visits are designed to be enjoyable for our friend with Alzheimer’s mid-stage dementia and the special occasion days in June were a great source for ideas.  We plan activities to keep her engaged while helping to preserve her skills, and we encourage her through positive feedback. We do this by by starting with refreshments and then transitioning to appropriate activities.

Did you know that June was National Candy Month?  That was great news to me since I know how much our friend loves chocolate and using chocolate candy would catch her attention.  We decided to prepare  bags of  assorted candy (mainly chocolates) decorated with an appropriate sticker identifying this special occasion and to give them away to staff who work in our retirement community.  This would give our friend the opportunity to sort and classify the candy and arrange it in the baggies and peel and place the sticker on each one. She would have plenty of opportunity for social interaction as she distributed the candy.

She enjoyed the activity and participated somewhat in the process of filling the baggies and adding the sticker.  She had fun hiding some of the candy and tasting ones that were her favorite.  She was able to contribute occasionally to the conversation regarding what candy we liked to eat when we were children and what special places we would go to get candy (the movies, grandma’s house, the candy store to spend some of our allowance, etc.)  We always have a discussion relating to any activity that we’re doing and our friend benefits from the positive environment that such sharing brings, even though she might forget what was actually said.

We filled 30 bags and will distribute them when our friend is ready to go for a walk around our community.  We had hoped to distribute them the day that we filled the baggies, but our friend preferred to stay in her home and continue our visit there.  Our plans are always flexible and we  encourage her to try new activities, but if she is hesitant we transition to an activity that she prefers at the moment.  We know that she will eagerly participate in the candy distribution at another visit when the timing is right for her.

The rest of the month will be filled with activities associated with Flag Day, the Summer Solstice (do you know how it’s determined),   and preparing for the Fourth of July.  Our visits are always designed to meet the needs of our friend and the love and laughter come naturally as we enrich her life and ours too!

How are you celebrating June with your friends?

Who can resist a chocolate chip cookie?  Well, maybe some can….but not on National Chocolate Chip Day!! Our Lady-Links group decided to try something new with our friend who is diagnosed with mid-stage Alzheimer’s dementia.  Together we made chocolate chip cookies to distribute among those who work  in our retirement community in celebration of National Chocolate Chip Day.

Here’s the result of the afternoon of baking.  Our friend is sitting with the basket of chocolate chip cookies, bagged and ready to distribute.  She participated in most of the process: the mixing of the ingredients, the scooping of the dough on the cookie sheets, decorating the baggies with stickers, putting two cookies in each bag, and giving them away to some very delighted members of our community.  I think her favorite part was sampling (mine too)!   She loves chocolate,  and we enjoyed seeing her so enthusiastic and having such fun!

As with any project that we do with her, there are modifications that need to be made and preparations that need to be done in advance of the visit.  Since we had not cooked with her before, we asked her husband for his insights and suggestions.  He let us know that the stove should be off limits for her because of previous episodes in which she would turn on the burners without his knowledge.  In fact, he had removed the burner knobs for safety reasons.    We made the decision not to involve our friend with putting the cookies in the oven or taking them out.  We did not want to encourage any interest in the stove/oven since that was a safety issue.  She could do every other step in the cookie-making process at the dining room table, so there was no need for her to even go into the kitchen.  We made sure she had plenty of things to do that did not involve being in the kitchen or using the stove/oven.

The preparation process prior to the visit involved making the stickers for the baggies that would hold the cookies.  I love my Creative Station sticker machine and can design my own stickers that way.  We made two for each baggie, one stating that it was the week of National Chocolate Chip Day and the other was something I downloaded from clip art saying “Have a Nice Day.”  Our friend loves to peel and place stickers, so I knew that this would be an enjoyable activity and would hold her interest while one of us slipped into the kitchen to put the cookies in the oven and take them out when they were done.

Just prior to the visit, I prepared three batches of cookie dough.  Two of them I completely mixed, and one I left unmixed for our friend to do.  It took a while for her to cream the butter into the dry ingredients and to add the egg and get it all mixed together, so I’m glad I had the other two batches of dough already done.  She instinctively knew how to cream the butter into the dry ingredients using a fork which led us to realize that she must have done this before and was linking to that experience.  As a result, we began to talk about when we were girls and would make cookies with our mothers.  She could add bits and pieces to the conversation, and we all had such a marvelous time of sharing our early cooking experiences, most of which were usually with our moms or in homemaking class.

We showed her how to use a cookie dough scoop to drop the dough on the baking sheet.  She did several scoops and then lost interest.  That’s when we brought out the baggies and stickers, and she had fun getting those ready while we finished scooping the dough.  That was a great way to keep her engaged in a meaningful activity and away from the stove.

 

We always had a Lady-Link in the kitchen doing the actual baking, but we never called attention to that.  We had plenty of fun around the dining table with our friend, so it was never an issue.

We filled over 40 baggies with our warm, delicious cookies and enjoyed  giving them away to the wonderful people who work in our retirement community.  Our friend was all smiles, especially when some of the recipients opened the bag and ate their cookies right away, describing them as “yummy” and “oh soooooo good.”   It was a great way to celebrate National Chocolate Chip Day and of course it was filled with all the love and laughter that naturally occurs during our Lady-Links visits.

Any suggestions for something we can “cook” at another Lady-Links visit that doesn’t require her to be involved with the stove/oven?

 

 

Our calendars are filled with special observances and events that sometimes get overlooked.  These special days are different from holidays which usually get all the attention.  I’m talking about days that pay tribute to such things as civic observances, historical or religious events, famous people or places or milestones that were set, worthwhile causes, or just -for-fun-occasions. For instance, did you know that May 15 is National Chocolate Chip Day?  That appeals more to me than May 13 which is Frog Jumping Day or May 16 which is National Sea Monkey Day.  Now, I’m all for frogs and sea monkeys, but chocolate rings a special bell with me and it just happens to be a favorite of our friend with Alzheimer’s dementia.  So that’s on the schedule for us to celebrate. When trying to come up with an idea for what to do when you visit a friend or loved one with any type of dementia,  just look at your typical calendar for inspiration.  You’ll find all sorts of events worth celebrating with a themed project that can be assembled during your visit.  Coming events we will celebrate with a project reflecting that special day are Mother’s Day, Memorial Day, Flag Day, Father’s Day and the first day of Summer. Did I mention Chocolate Chip Day????  You can see what’s on my mind. At our Lady-Links visits, we’ve used special days to inspire activities and projects by decorating  pumpkins for the first day of Fall, decorating masks and hats for Mardi Gras, making cards for St. Patrick’s Day and the first day of Spring, and making flower arrangements to be used for Veteran’s Day, just to name a few.   Remember, we’re not talking about major holidays.  We’ve done tons of stuff for those.  We’re looking for those obscure (and some not so obscure) special days as inspiration for projects to do at our twice weekly visits that will keep our friend actively engaged and help her to maintain her social, emotional/spiritual, and intellectual links. We don’t want to be boring.  So far, we’ve been successful! Just recently at some of our Lady-Links visits, we prepared for one of those special days, Earth Day, with our friend by making bookmarks and cards with “conservation” and “appreciate Earth” themes. Since we want our friend to be involved as much as possible in our projects, we design them with her skills and abilities in mind.  She doesn’t handle glue very well, but she loves to peel and place stickers.  My daughter-in-law suggested that I purchase a Creative Station machine to make my own stickers and I love it.  We are able to design and print stickers that our friend can relate to and that work well with our project theme.   We used one sticker design for our bookmark, that of Earth.  We printed a Bible verse relating to the Earth on green card stock, and brought that to our Lady-Link visit for her to peel and place the Earth sticker on it. For our Earth Day themed card, I found a great source for pictures on my daughter-in-law’s blog, Carrie Elle using a link she had to Play 2 Learn with Sarah which featured an Earth Day Bingo game.  The pictures were just what I wanted but the Bingo game had too many squares for our friend to be able to play it.  Although I didn’t use it for its intended purpose,  I downloaded it, printed the Bingo cards, and cut up the squares to use to make stickers for our Earth Day encouragement cards that we shared with other residents in our senior community. It worked wonderfully!  I printed our Earth Day verse on green card stock, folded it and had it ready for our friend to place the stickers on it. I organized the cards and the stickers in baggies, and gave to each person at our Lady-Link visit that day.  All the supplies for making one card were complete within each baggie. We had a great conversation with our friend during our Earth Day themed visits and she was able to join in with a few comments of her own.  She remembers her parents telling her to turn out the lights as she would leave a room and she remembers that they would reuse aluminum foil more than once.  We talked about conservation efforts including recycling and reusing things (our senior community takes this very seriously and has a great recycling effort).   We were so pleased that she understood the purpose of Earth Day and could relate to it, at least at that moment.  Our activities linked to something in her past that was important to her and gave her the opportunity to participate fully. The cards and bookmarks were given to our community chaplain who distributed them to those residents who attended vespers since they had an appropriate and relevant Bible verse on them. Not only did our Earth Day projects serve a purpose for our friend and the residents who received them, but we Lady-Links benefited from the conversation they promoted as we shared ways of recycling, reusing, and restoring our natural resources.  It was totally worth the effort, and we look forward to the next special day that we can celebrate with a themed project!

 

What special days are coming up that you plan to celebrate?  Any suggestions for us to use with our friend at one of our Lady-Links visits?

Our friend’s birthday was approaching and we had to decide how to celebrate.  She has been diagnosed with mid-stage Alzheimer’s dementia and we didn’t want to overwhelm her, yet we wanted her to be fully included and engaged in all that we did at her party.  We decided to incorporate two key concepts in her birthday activities: (1)  Keeping them SIMPLE, yet  (2) Making them represent SIGNIFICANT events in her life.  Our phrase was “simple yet significant” as we planned for her special day.

We chose to make the celebration simple:

We asked each Lady-Link to send a birthday card (rather than a gift) which we collected and placed in a basket decorated with balloons and flowers to give to her.

We used refreshments that she could easily handle like chocolates and coffee (two of her favorites).

We celebrated during a Lady-Links visit which happened to fall on her birthday (our friend is used to our routine of refreshments and activities).

We limited the guest list to 6 of the 12 Lady-Links (our friend is very much at ease with us but all of us at one time is distracting and overwhelming for her).

We chose to make the activities ones that were significant to her:

Birthday Book

Birthday Bingo

Birthday Cards (we opened them and read them to her).

The results were fantastic.  She enjoyed the celebration and participated fully and understood that it was her birthday. And she had lots of fun!

 Birthday Book 

We used clip art we found on our computer to represent things in her life that are significant to her such as church, music (Perry Como is her favorite), chocolates and coffee,  dancing, and others such as her birthday month, places she lived, and activities she enjoys.  There were 12 clip art pictures that we used in several ways. The first was a Birthday Book.

We wrote a simple story of events in her life to go along with each picture and created a document that looked like a book.  It was written in paragraph form and had space for the illustrations that we would add during its presentation.   For the Birthday Book game, we gave our friend and each guest one or two of the clip art pictures and, as I read the story, the person with the picture corresponding to the information that was being read taped it in the book.  Our friend was delighted to hear “her story” and could present her clip art picture to me at the appropriate time when she heard the picture she was holding being described.  We helped her tape it in the appropriate place.  When we finished, she had a Birthday Book to keep. Using tape worked well, but after the birthday celebration, I got a machine to make stickers, and making those pictures into stickers would have been even better.

The Birthday Book had 6 pages, plus a front cover. The Birthday Book was given to her to keep and we were told that she proudly showed it to her family at a birthday celebration they had for her.

Birthday Bingo

We used those same clip art pictures to make a Birthday Bingo game which we played after the Birthday Book activity.

We made six Bingo cards, each having the 12 clip art pictures.  For the caller, a large copy of each of the clip art pictures was used to announce the item to be located on the Bingo cards.  She could look at the caller’s copy and match it on her Bingo card, and cover it with a chip.  A straight line, horizontally or vertically covered with chips was a winner.  The prize…chocolate of course!

The Birthday Bingo set was laminated and we have used it numerous times since her birthday celebration.  Our friend realizes that it is not her birthday each time we play the Birthday Bingo game, but she enjoys playing it because each of the clip art pictures represents something significant in her life and she loves being reminded of those special times.

 Birthday Cards

We ended the celebration by opening and reading aloud her 12 cards which were presented to her in a basket with balloons.  After I read each card, I handed it to her and she looked carefully at each one commenting with words like “pretty” or “ohhhh” or “nice.”   For the ones that were humorous, she laughed.

Although we think of the traditional birthday party with blazing candles on a big birthday cake, lots of people, a mountain of gifts, and loudly singing “Happy Birthday”  as great choices for all birthdays, those activities may not be the best choice for your loved one or friend who has dementia or even a mild cognitive impairment.  Our friend with Alzheimer’s dementia enjoyed every moment of her birthday celebration, participated fully, and seemed to understand what was happening.  We think it was successful because we kept it simple and the activities we chose to do represented significant activities in her life.

Just because our friend’s celebration was based on the concept of keeping it simple yet significant, that didn’t diminish the fun and all the love and laughter that flows freely at every Lady-Links visit.  Quite the opposite…because our friend was so alert to her surroundings and engaged in all of the activities, she didn’t lose interest or withdraw in any way.  She had a great time and so did we!

 

 

 

 

 

Easter is a great time for celebration and our friend with Alzheimer’s dementia is ready to participate.  She can recall several events from her past which made the Easter season special for her. Although most of those memories included fun activities from when she was a child, we didn’t let that stop us.  We have plenty of ideas to modify traditional Easter activities into ones that are appropriate for her to complete.  Our modifications will let her enjoy the process of making them plus they will serve as a welcome gift for others who live in our senior community.    So, don’t let it stop you if you are looking to include your grandparent or senior loved one with cognitive issues in some of the fun. With the appropriate modifications, you’ll both have an enjoyable  time!

Filling plastic Easter eggs with candy is fine for children, but not for seniors who have health restrictions that affect what they can eat.  Yet, it is fun to open the eggs to see what’s inside, so we decided to come up with a senior-appropriate alternative.   Plastic Easter eggs filled with Bible verses are just the thing that our community vespers attendees will appreciate.  We selected six verses that relate to the Easter message, printed them on colored paper, cut them into strips, and placed each in an egg.  For variety,  uplifting and encouraging sayings, or jokes and riddles  could be used.  Even small items like samples of hand lotion, perfume, make-up, or coupons for services would work.  We did the cutting prior to the visit so the verses would be ready for her to place in the eggs.

For our purposes, we chose six scriptures, one for each of our different pastel-colored plastic eggs, and put them inside.  We filled our baskets with plastic grass, added the eggs and an Easter-themed cross and will have these ready for the Easter Sunday vespers service.

The craft-foam eggs with “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” will be distributed at the Palm Sunday vesper service.  These were made from kits we ordered from Oriental Trading Company.  They are stickers that are easily placed on foam backings and our friend loves to make them.  She enjoys reading the message and will often add an occasional phrase or short sentence about how much she enjoys church and related activities. These verses remind her of when she used to teach Vacation Bible School and children’s Sunday School.   Her reading skills have improved since our visits began.  She can read short phrases and looks forward to doing so.

We found this basket design in our computer clip art, and printed it on yellow card stock.  One of the Lady-Links painted the “background” eggs and the bow using watercolors prior to our visit with our friend.  The three foam eggs are stickers and were added by our friend, making the basket complete!  The craft foam eggs were part of a container of spring-themed stickers purchased at Michael’s. These baskets will be delivered by volunteers in our community when they take meals to home-bound residents during this Easter season.  Other volunteers will use these baskets in the Card Ministry and include a note of encouragement with them.

All of these activities required some planning and preparation so that our friend could easily complete them at our March and April Lady-Links visits.  Some activities were completed assembly-line style when we visited.  We made sure her position on the assembly line was an activity that she could successfully complete.

 

Our friend is not the only one who enjoys these activities.  As Lady-Links, we also have fun.An added blessing to our visits has been that our projects serve a dual purpose. They help our friend continue to maintain cognitive, emotional, spiritual, and physical links in her life, and those projects also serve as an encouragement to those in our community who receive them.  Our friend knows that she is making these to give away and in doing so she realizes that she is helping others.  There are few opportunities for a person with dementia to feel that they are making a significant contribution to another’s well-being. To know that we as Lady- Links have provided that opportunity for our friend brings us such joy.

As you celebrate this Easter season, may you find that same joy as you include your loved ones in activities that they can make and then share with their “senior” friends.   Happy Easter!

 

 

At many of our Lady-Links visits we enjoy making some type of art project with our friend who has Alzheimer’s dementia.  We found the tips from the Alzheimer’s Navigator on the alz.org website helpful in our planning.  Here’s how we applied them to our situation:

Tip #1:  “Keep the project on an adult level.  Avoid anything that might be demeaning or seem child-like.”  Our cards and other art projects are colorful and appealing which applies to all ages.  However, we are careful that they are not childish.  Our cards are designed to provide encouragement and inspiration among our seniors in our community.

Our holiday decorations are used at community events and with visits to neighbors in our continuing care section.  Some of our projects are designed to be used with children and are given to local schools and hospitals.

We treat each project as friends working together.  We have fun, laugh a lot, and enjoy each other’s company.  We do not set ourselves up as teachers, nor do we treat our friend with Alzheimer’s dementia as our student or as a child.  We are friends and treat her accordingly.  We do carefully choose the part she is given to accomplish the project successfully, but we do not call attention to that fact.  We usually work in an assembly line fashion sitting around a table, so she feels that she is contributing a significant step in the process which of course she is.

Tip #2  “Build conversation into the project.  Provide encouragement, discuss what the person is creating or reminiscence.”  When you have three or four Lady-Links get together, there is a wealth of love,  laughter and memories associated with the project built into the conversation.

Our friend is progressively making more comments and adding bits to the conversation with each visit.  She is linking to memories in her past and can say enough about them that we can catch on to what she is communicating.  Our talk centers around her.  We don’t have private conversations.  When we initiate something to discuss, we will draw her into the conversation and wait for a reply.  Sometimes we give her prompts.  At other times, she doesn’t need them.

Tip #3 “Help the person begin the activity.”  We always model for our friend what we want her to do.  This is not done as a teacher student presentation, but rather as when one of us takes the lead and shows the entire group what their step in the process  will be.

Tip #4:  “Use safe materials.”  Everything we use is non-toxic and easy for her to use.  As of now, we are pre-cutting what is needed.  We assemble all the supplies and get them ready for use at the visits.  Baggies are a great way to group all the supplies for one project when it is possible for our friend to complete it.  At other times, we use the assembly line method.    As her manipulative skills continue to return, she may be able to do some of the cutting but if that happens,  we will use rounded scissors with her.  The preparation process currently is done before each visit begins so that it will be easy for her to do her part.  We even have a machine to make stickers because they are fun and easy for her to apply.

Tip #5:  Allow plenty of time, keeping in mind that the person doesn’t have to finish the project in one sitting.”  Our visits are usually one hour.

Part of that time we enjoy refreshments together and transition into a game or an activity or a project when our friend seems ready.  We focus on her and the process.  Our visits have never been about completing a certain number of projects.  We watch our friend.  If she is engaged, we continue.  When she becomes disinterested, we transition into another activity.

Art projects are something we enjoy with our friend, and to make them as successful as possible, we incorporate all five tips in our planning.  We focus on her enjoyment, not on achievement.  However, when we do that, we find that there is an incredible level of achievement that naturally occurs.  Our friend is finding meaning, purpose, joy and hope through these activities.  And so are we!

From the Alzheimer’s Association’s “Memories in the Making” flyer comes this very relevant quote, “Studies show expressing and connecting through art in a safe and social environment can bridge communication gaps, increase self esteem and stimulate the brain of a person with dementia.”  St. Patrick’s Day activities, when carefully chosen, can do just that! The activities we’ve chosen for the weeks leading up to St. Patrick’s Day have given our friend a sense of accomplishment and purpose, plus they’ve been great fun!

At our Lady-Links visits with our friend who has Alzheimer’s dementia, we have seen the reality of that quote.  Our friend is more expressive both with oral communication and non-verbal communication such as smiles, laughter, and willingness to engage in what we’re doing.  She is more confident and asks for more supplies when what we have given her as her portion of the group activity begins to run low.  We are thrilled with this increase in communication, social skills, self-esteem and participation.

We selected two card designs using peel-and-stick craft foam shamrocks.

Our friend loves to peel and stick.  She can use glue with our help, but she can manipulate the shamrock stickers by herself and enjoys doing so.

Our cards that we make are used throughout our retirement community in a variety of ways, so we always have several designs to suit multiple purposes.  Some include scripture.  Some include humor.  Some are a combination, but all are encouraging.

On alz.org there is a list of 101 activities to use with a person who has Alzheimer’s, and Bingo is listed as one of those recommended activities.  I have found that the traditional Bingo card is rather complicated for our friend.  To locate a number under a letter would not be something she could do very easily, so when we’ve played Bingo I have made my own cards with pictures and no numbers.  I was about to do that for St. Patrick’s Day when I visited a blog by carrieelle.com which has given me ideas for some of the activities we’ve done at our previous visits,  and found a linkup to play2learnwithsarah.com which had downloadable St. Patrick’s Day Bingo cards with pictures already made.

My suggestion is to find activities that you think could be used successfully with your friend or loved one, modify them if necessary, and check out the alz.org website to see how to best use those activities at a visit.

St. Patrick’s Day, as well as all holidays, offers a reason to make a visit to your friend or family member who is in any type of cognitive decline.  Prepare a few activities that you both can enjoy together and spend an hour enriching the life of someone who needs it.  You’ll find that you enjoy it as much as they do.  Blessings to you!

 

Involving our friend with Alzheimer’s in Mardi Gras fun was easy!  There are so many things to do associated with this holiday that our friend can do and enjoy.

We helped her make a crown, a mask and a hat to wear to the parade and celebration our community hosts for Mardi Gras.  Advance preparation included assembling the supplies and getting a few of the sequins, jewels and feathers glued in place so she could see what we had in mind.  Plus we had several completely made to show her.  With hers,  she had to sort,  select and add the remaining decorations and each one was finished quickly and easily with just a little assistance from us.

Our friend with Alzheimer’s helped sort and categorize the decorations  available for her Mardi Gras accessories. Then she chose what she wanted to use,  making each one her uniquely created design.  In our preparation process before the visit, we selected a limited number of items each of which would be appropriate for the project.  That way we knew that whatever combination of choices she made would result in something that would be a good design.  Several steps were necessary for her to complete the process.  The Alzheimer’s Association website stresses the importance of helping the person with Alzheimer’s to engage in situations that require sequencing and coordination to help maintain memory and enhance communication and social skills.  She followed the patterns on the accessories we had for her as models and made the appropriate selections.  Because we had limited selections of each, she did not get confused or overwhelmed and created something really special. 

We made  Mardi Gras themed cards to give to those in our community who might need a little encouragement to find a reason to celebrate.  These cards will be given to the Card Ministry volunteers to distribute the day after Mardi Gras.  Some of our friends have meals delivered to them and these cards will accompany those meals.  Others will find a card in their clubhouse cubby or some will be given to each person with an individual visit.  

The front of the card is decorated with glitter glue in the Mardi Gras official colors of purple, gold, and green to look like confetti.  Two Bible verses about a time to laugh and the importance of a cheerful heart were glued inside along with a message about continuing to find reasons to celebrate each day throughout the year.  Our friend loved decorating the front in squiggly lines in whatever pattern she wanted with the squeeze bottles of glitter glue.  She enjoyed this activity and when her bottle of glitter glue got near the bottom and became hard to squeeze, she asked for another bottle so she could continue. We used an assembly line in making the cards, so everyone had a part.   She understood the concept that these cards would be used to encourage others and she was quite willing to continue decorating each one until all were finished.  

These activities were accomplished in several visits by the Lady-Links with our friend.  She now has the accessories she designed and created to wear to the Mardi Gras parade and dinner, and she contributed an important part in decorating the confetti cards that will be an encouragement to others.

All that added up to plenty of love and laughter during our Mardi Gras Fun visits.

 

Love shared among friends is a blessing   Add some laughter and you’ve got a Lady-Links visit.  Our friend with Alzheimer’s dementia responds well to the way we express our love through smiles, encouragement, and activities that she enjoys doing.  It isn’t surprising that those of us who make these friendship visits enjoy the same benefits as well.  Love is always the theme of our visits,  so naturally as we approached the month of February,  our visits included making valentines and valentine-themed flower arrangements.

The Alzheimer’s Association website has many tips for how to choose and present activities to a person with Alzheimer’s dementia.  One important tip says to stress a  sense of purpose using this example, “If you ask a person to make a card, he or she may not respond.  But if you say that you’re sending a special get-well card to a friend and invite him or her to join you, the person may enjoy working on the task.”  With our friend, we let her know that there were many groups in our community who want to use our valentines to send to those in need.  Then we simply began making the cards and she readily joined us in the activity.   It has a purpose and she is very willing to help fulfill that purpose.

 

We found that she had some difficulty using glue so my daughter-in-law who has a sticker machine offered to make stickers from scripture designs we created.  Our friend had no trouble peeling and placing the stickers.  We purchased craft foam white, pink and red heart stickers to add additional decoration.  Some of the scriptures we chose were from the Old Testament.  Others were from the New Testament.  We also made valentines that did not include scripture, so that we would have a variety of choices for those groups who would receive our handmade creations.   The four scripture designs focused on God’s love or the impact that His love has in our hearts.

 

 

 

For easy assembly at each Lady-Link visit, we used baggies that had been filled ahead of time with all the supplies necessary to complete one valentine.   That made it easy and less confusing for our friend.   This still left room for creativity as the stickers could be placed in various arrangements.  Any necessary gluing was done and allowed to dry before being placed in the baggies. We found that preparation is the key to helping our friend successfully complete a project.  Presenting too many choices at any one time is overwhelming.  At our visits, each of us took one baggie at a time and made a valentine from its contents.  Then we each opened another baggie and proceeded.  As long as our friend is engaged we continue.  When she becomes disinterested, we change to another of the many activities we know she enjoys.

 

 

Representatives from each group who wanted to use our valentines had plenty of choices to fit the needs of their intended recipients and all were taken in a matter of minutes, with requests that we make more.  Our friend was present at our Valentine Give-Away and she saw first-hand how much people appreciated her creations, bringing much meaning, purpose, joy and hope to her life.

 

 

Isn’t that what Love is all about?

May your Valentine’s Day be filled with love and laughter as you enrich the lives of others.  

From your Lady-Link friends.

The husband of our friend with Alzheimer’s dementia hosted a reception for our Lady-Links group to meet their adult children, one of whom lives out of state and flew in for the holidays. There was a lovely time of sharing between her children and the Lady-Links regarding the benefits of a friendship caring group on the family as well as on the friends who make the visits. We enjoyed refreshments and singing Christmas carols accompanied by a guitarist.   It was an uplifting, encouraging time for everyone involved.

We made the decorations with our f riend during our December Lady-Links visits.  Having attended a session presented by the Alzheimer’s Association on how to prepare for the holidays, I was reminded how important it is to involve the person with dementia in “safe, manageable holiday preparation activities.”  I chose decorations which our friend would enjoy making and would feel a sense of accomplishment when completed.  It was holiday fun but with a purpose.

There is always preparation that must be done ahead of time before beginning any project with our friend.  We want to make each activity flow smoothly and avoid any confusion with the steps in the process.  We bagged the pine cones and trees with the correct number of glitter pom poms.  That way, everything to complete the decoration was in one bag

We used washable, clear-drying glue.  We put the drop of glue on the pine cone or the craft- foam Christmas tree and our  friend chose which color of pom pom to place on that drop of glue.  She loved choosing each color and deciding where to place it.  At times, she would show us where she wanted the glue deposited.  The stand for each craft-foam Christmas tree was made from a toilet paper roll wrapped in green card stock.  We taped and/or glued them in place.  We made 47 decorations which we used at events in our community for the first several weeks in December and then gave them to volunteers who took them to a continuing care facility to be enjoyed there.

 

As we made these decorations, we sang Christmas carols and songs.  Our friend readily joined in,  remembering the words and the tunes, building on past traditions and memories.  Each Lady-Link visit in which time was spent in creating these decorations inspired conversations and triggered dormant holiday memories with our friend.  What a blessing for all of us!