Thanksgiving is a time to embrace and acknowledge the blessings of the year.  As Lady-Links, we are thankful for the opportunity to visit our dear friends, those ladies in our community with cognitive decline, engaging them in activities they enjoy.  It is a wonderful feeling to know that we are making a difference in their lives, but what is perhaps surprising is the difference it makes in our lives too.  The friendships that have developed during our visits are seasoned with love, laughter, and shared memories.  We are truly thankful for our dear friends and the blessing of being together through this season of life.

We always enjoy making  Thanksgiving crafts at our November visits and then distributing them to the continuing care residents of our community.

Thanksgiving thoughts…always involve our dear friends and the journey they are traveling.  It’s a privilege and an honor to be on that journey with them and to find ways to connect through Thanksgiving crafts and memories.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Lady-Links

The name of our group is Lady-Links.  Our purpose is to help ladies with cognitive decline maintain important links (social, intellectual, and emotional) in their lives by engaging them in activities they enjoy.  We visit these dear friends in our retirement community on a weekly basis, and we see firsthand the difficult effects that Alzheimer’s has on them and on their families.  Alzheimer’s is a progressive neurological disease that doesn’t yet have a cure.  We’ve been at the start of finding a cure, and we plan to be cheering at the finish line when that cure is found.

By walking to show support for our dear friends and donating to help fund the research necessary to find a cure, we are actively involved in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s each year.  We are part of a retirement community who takes this commitment very seriously.  Our friends, neighbors, husbands, community staff  and local businesses help make this annual event successful.

We are committed to bringing love and laughter into the lives of our dear friends for as long as it takes until a cure is found.

When that happens, we will be there to celebrate but will always remember the years we faithfully participated in a walk that helped us reach that finish line.

 

We all want to make the world a better place, regardless of our cognitive condition.  When the Lady-Links visit our dear friends, those ladies in our community in cognitive decline, we find ways to help them contribute something positive to our time together.  Engaging them in conversation through a Show and Tell activity provides an opportunity for them to share something about their skills and experiences.  When they make a connection to the item we’ve brought to rekindle memories, we listen carefully to what they have to say.  They become equals in our visit, with everyone engaging in shared experiences and opinions.  It helps them maintain their sense of self-esteem and dignity, something that is important to all of us.  The Lady-Links like to think that our Show and Tell visits make our world a better place!

The Lady-Links have discovered keys to make our Show and Tell visits successful.  The item we bring can be anything.  It’s what we do with it that’s important. We use the TALK method  to bring the most benefits to this type of visit:

• Tell about the item you brought.
  • Where you got it.
  • How you use/ used it.
  • What makes it meaningful to you.
• Ask meaningful questions regarding the item.
  • Where or when have you seen something like this?
  • Did you/do you have something like this and how did/do you use it?
  • How could this have been (a) helpful or (b) fun or (c) special to have?
• Let everyone handle the item.
  • Pass it around so that everyone has the opportunity to touch it.
  • Call attention to its size, shape, colors, texture, weight.
• Keep the connection active.
  • Call on each person by name.
  • Listen carefully to what is said.
  • Respond positively and specifically.

 

This “Happy Box” served as a meaningful Show and Tell item at a recent visit.  The Lady-Link who brought it had filled it with items that made her happy.  As she took out each item, she explained why she chose it, prompting the dear friends to share ideas about similar items that make them happy.

One of our Lady-Links has a collection of “green things” as she calls it.  It’s always fun to see what she adds to her collection.  Not only does this spur conversation about something similar from our memories, but it’s a great chance to talk about our favorite colors.

Fun items such as a Barbie doll collection are great for reminding us of our childhoods.  We admit that none of us had Barbie dolls when we were young but we all recognized them as what some of our children or grandchildren chose.  This led to memories of the dolls we had, most of which were baby dolls.

We had buttons and bowls at a recent Show and Tell visit.  One of the Lady-Links brought an antique button collection.  Her Lady-Link partner brought some bowls she made at a local ceramics center.  It was fun to sort the buttons into the bowls and talk about clothing that we wore as children and teenagers.

Sometimes the object for our Show and Tell visits is an heirloom.  One of our Lady-Links brought a christening dress that has been used in her family for generations.

Toys always bring lots of engaging conversation.  This set of nesting dolls came from Europe.

 

From heirlooms to something as simple as a set of tote bags…Show and Tell provides ways to connect, share memories, enhance self-esteem and contribute something positive to the world we live in, no matter how small that world is.

The TALK method works…Show and Tell is a meaningful way to bring love and laughter into the lives of our dear friends and to us too!

 

 

 

The Lady-Links love to celebrate holidays with our dear friends, those ladies in our community in various stages of cognitive decline.  It’s easy to find crafts and decorations with a July 4th theme, and we have plenty to talk about as we assemble them.

The Lady-Links sometimes get together as a group to make over 100 themed crafts to send to residents in our continuing care community.

Other times, we visit with dear friends to make projects together that are used throughout our community including faith-themed crafts for those who attend chapel services.

These patriotic crafts inspire conversations about memories from our childhood…fireworks, parades, ice cream and watermelon!  Our dear friends engage easily when they’re involved with these easy-to-assemble art projects. The Lady-Links have celebrated the Fourth of July with our dear friends for many years, and we always look forward to saying “Happy Birthday America” each time!

The Lady-Links have plenty of love to share with one another and with their dear friends, those ladies in our community with various types of cognitive decline.  This is the 10th year we have had a Valentine Party where we made valentines to give to our dear friends as well as to all the residents in our continuing care community.  It is a celebration of friendship as we lovingly create such special valentines that we know will bring joy into the lives of those who receive them.

We have a craft coordinator who gets everything organized for us with lots of designs from which to choose.

In addition to the fun of creating the valentines, we enjoyed delicious refreshments as well.

The result was 120 valentines created with plenty of love and laughter.

The Lady-Links care about our friends and neighbors, and Valentine’s Day is one of our favorite days to express that in a tangible way.

It’s always a joy to be together as a group to make Christmas and holiday ornaments to give to those who live in our community’s continuing care residence and to our dear friends, those ladies who are in various stages of cognitive decline.  The Lady-Links are hosted every year by the husband of our very first dear friend who welcomes us with a Christmas cake, holiday punch and an array of ornaments to make.  In addition, we visit our dear friends to make ornaments with them that they can have or share.

It was a wonderful Christmas season of joy, and of sharing love and laughter.  A very special Lady-Links Christmas to remember.

The Lady-Links have many reasons to be thankful, and it shows each time we are together as a group or with our dear friends.  The connections, the friendships, the love and laughter…all make for special times and memories.  Recently we made Thanksgiving cards to send to our dear friends, and that event in itself was a reason to be thankful.  We enjoyed our time together plus we enjoyed knowing how much our dear friends, those ladies in our community in various stages of cognitive decline, would have when they opened our creations.

Each card was unique because we had so many ways to embellish our designs.

Handwritten notes expressed our thankfulness to our dear friends for their friendship and let them know how much the Lady-Links care.

The Lady-Links had a busy time in October and November making crafts to deliver to the residents of our Continuing Care Community.  We made over 100 of these Autumn Blessings crafts while enjoying a time of fellowship and fun.

We visited with our dear friends, those ladies in our community with various types of cognitive decline, to include them in the fun of making the  crafts. 

The Lady-Links think that every season is a reason to celebrate our many blessings with the friendships and connections we have with our dear friends.

 

The Lady-Links are walking to win the battle against Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias.  Recently our retirement community held a Walk to End Alzheimer’s event and the Lady-Links eagerly participated.

With more than six million Americans living with Alzheimer’s, we feel the need to step up the efforts to find a cure.  The majority of the dear friends with cognitive decline that we visit weekly have Alzheimer’s Disease.  Each year, we walk in honor of our dear friends and are committed to bring love and laughter into their lives until a cure is found.

One day, we hope our efforts to raise awareness for more research into this progressive neurological disease will help end it completely.

What’s special to you?  Chances are, it’s special to someone else too.  That is what Show and Tell is all about.  Finding things that connect us and provide a link to shared memories.

We all use bags to carry items from groceries to books… and everything in between.  “What’s in your bag?” is a take-off of a popular commercial about the importance of things we carry with us. We usually think of what’s in the bag when we plan for a Show and Tell visit with our dear friends, those ladies in our community with various types of cognitive decline.  However,  when one Lady-Link brought a bag for Show and Tell, not only did it spark conversation about things we “tote around” but the most conversation occurred about what was on the bag rather than what was in it.  It was a special photograph of  some of the women pilots from World War II.  This all-female flight organization, known as WASP (Women Air Force Service Pilots), was responsible for ferrying aircraft to free up male pilots for combat missions.

The WASP training took place at Avenger Field in Sweetwater, Texas which is where our Lady-Link lived when she was a child.  What bags do you have that tell a story simply from their design rather than their contents?

Bags for your favorite team or player?  Bags with interesting patterns?

Bags from special places you’ve visited?

Bags that are unique in color or texture?

Connections are an important part of socialization, and even a bag can tie us together!

Why not reach out to your friend or loved one in cognitive decline to explore bags… what’s inside and what’s outside?  Perhaps you’ll be surprised at the connections you’ll find!