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!

We select projects that our friend with Alzheimer’s dementia will enjoy and can do. We want her to be actively involved in the process, so we select materials that she can easily manipulate and have meaning to her. That’s our strategy for success!  She loves anything to do with elephants, and her home includes an extensive collection of elephant figurines and decor.  She also loves children and for many years served as a children’s teacher in her church.  So, when we found a free download of a cute paper sack elephant puppet that we could make at our Lady-Links visits and give to children, we knew our friend would eagerly participate.  We were right!

 

This meaningful activity kept our friend involved physically, emotionally,  and cognitively.  She could assemble the parts of the puppet correctly and was delighted with the outcome. In addition, this puppet created opportunities for her to use her social skills as we shared materials, worked cooperatively, and communicated personal experiences of times we actually saw real elephants.   Here’s how we managed the project:

 

We purchased the supplies we needed: colorful card stock, scissors, glue, lunch-sized paper sacks, and red paint.  Several of the Lady-Links did the cutting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our friend and the other Lady-Links helped assemble the parts and glue the puppets together to produce the final product.

 

 

 

Our plan is to give the puppets to a children’s section of a local hospital when we have assembled about 50 of them.  Puppets can be used to encourage children, to calm their fears, to reassure them, and to be a link in the communication process.  Children will sometimes tell a puppet things that they are hesitant to tell an adult.  Puppets can bridge the gap between the child and his or her doctor or nurse.  Often times a child will cooperate when a puppet encourages them to take their medicine or submit to a procedure when other methods have failed.  We know that our friend with Alzheimer’s dementia has a deep love for all children and this puppet project is a way to help her have a part in showing that love in a tangible way.  That’s what Lady-Links is all about….bringing love and laughter into our friend’s life and giving her opportunities to enrich her life in ways that otherwise might be lost.

At a recent Lady-Link visit, we decorated pumpkins to use as table centerpieces at some of our community’s events.  We wanted the activity to be something our friend with Alzheimer’s dementia could be actively engaged in from start to finish.  That left out carving pumpkins or using hot glue guns.  Although those might have produced more glamorous centerpieces, our goal was not to produce a decoration worthy of being published in a house beautiful magazine but to include our friend in the entire creative arts process using skills she was capable of managing.  We wanted her to be an active participant, not just a spectator.

We decided that using fall-themed stickers and pre-cut wire glitter ribbon to decorate the pumpkins would produce an attractive centerpiece and would be something our friend could manage. A quick trip to a craft store and to a pumpkin patch provided just what we needed.

 

 

We let each lady select which stickers she wanted on her pumpkin.  Our friend was very particular about which ones she choose, looking at each one carefully and making a decision to use it or not.  She watched us peel the backing off the stickers and begin placing them on our pumpkins.  She had a little difficulty with the first sticker, so we peeled it back half-way to get it started and gave it back to her.  She completed the process and her first sticker hit the target!  She was delighted.  We had to help her with peeling the next sticker, but after that she was able to do it herself.  We talked about the colors and shapes of the stickers and what they looked like.  Some were just abstract designs but others were leaves or acorns or pumpkin smiley faces.  She picked up an acorn sticker and said, “This is a nut.”  Then she looked at one of us with a big grin and said, “Are you a nut?”  Of course we all laughed and said each of us was a little nutty at times!  It is amazing that she has re-connected a link to her sense of humor, which had for all purposes been lost.

The pre-cut ribbon with wire along the edges made it easy for our friend to use in decorating the stem to add that final touch.  She had not used stickers or wire ribbon in years, so it was delightful to see her successfully link to those once-forgotten motor skills  to produce a decoration that was fun to make and visually appealing.

  This activity triggered memories for our friend, inspiring bits of conversations about holidays, traditions, and family.  We hope you will duplicate this activity with someone you care about who suffers from cognitive impairment.  A child could do this with an aged grandparent and both could be blessed in the process.  What ideas do you have?

 

These vases of flowers were arranged by our friend and her Lady-Links during a recent visit. Although this activity seems rather simple, the process involved for our friend is quite complex and provided opportunities for her to sort, categorize, separate, group, and manipulate.  With lots of love and laughter,  we Lady-Links participated in the process with her so that she would have a model to follow.  We did it so naturally that it was not as if we were “teaching” her anything.  We simply talked about what we were doing and she quickly engaged.

 

 

The first step was to include the flowers in the tote tray we carry to each Lady-Link visit.  Our friend loves beautiful things and her apartment is filled with lovely decorative items from years past.  We began talking about how beautiful the flowers in the tote tray were and that there was an event in our community that needed some flower arrangements for their table decorations.  We said, “Let”s make some arrangements and share them with our community.”  Our friend became interested immediately.  Notice, we didn’t ask her if she wanted to make some flower arrangements.  We simply agreed as a group that this would be a great thing to do and that we would have fun doing it.

 

 

 

Next, we put out four vases on the table.  There were four of us including our friend.  Then we separated the flowers by colors.  We gave an equal number of purple flowers to each person.

 

 

As a group, we talked about what a beautiful shade of purple the flowers were.  We laughed as we pretended to smell them (they are silk flowers) and joked about why they didn’t have a fragrance.  Our friend laughed with us and smelled the flowers and would say, “Noooooo.”  We could see our friend’s patio with lovely baskets of hanging flowers and made several comparisons to those flowers and the ones we were arranging.  Our friend was fully engaged, looking from the patio flowers to the silk flowers in front of us.  She even pointed out other flowers in decorations in her home that we could see from where we were sitting.

 

The last part of the activity was to insert the white flowers into the vase with the purple flowers.  Look closely at this picture.  Our friend put her white flowers into her coffee cup.  I did not realize this when I was taking the picture and neither did the other Lady-Links.  When I finished taking the picture, and saw it in the cup that was full of coffee, I just smiled and said, “Let’s move it to the vase so it will have more room there.”   It made me realize that next time I should move the coffee cups before we begin our flower arranging.

This was such a successful experience because we laughed, talked, had fun, complimented one another on our artistic skills, and felt good that we could do something that would benefit our community.  It is not at all important that she used a coffee cup instead of a vase.   A few days later when we attended the event where our flowers decorated the tables, we told our friend what a great job she did in making them.  She smiled and said how pretty they were, but I don’t think she remembers making them.  That doesn’t matter.  What does matter is that we ladies had our “girl time” together doing something we all enjoyed that promoted lots of love and laughter, enriching our friend’s life and ours too!

The research shows that Alzheimer’s patients benefit greatly from activities, especially those they enjoy. Exercise strengthens and maintains muscles, reduces joint pain, and helps to increase and maintain flexibility. We found out that our friend loves to dance, and we incorporate that in most of our Lady-Links visits.

 

Lady-Links success stories continue to abound! People are hearing about our visits with our friend and telling us they can observe the difference our group is making. The research on dementia is full of examples of benefits people receive from activities. Some of these include happier daily life, increased feelings of self-worth, maintained memory, enhanced and maintained communications skills, and improved and increased personal relationships.

This website will share our story of visiting with our friend who has Alzheimer’s dementia. Our hope is that you will duplicate our efforts with that special person in your life who suffers from any of the many types of dementia. We’d love to hear from you!

We will be sharing our newsletters, projects and activities on this blog. We will even share things that didn’t work and what we learned from that.

You can also connect with us on Facebook.