Lady Links

The year 2020 has brought many challenges to all of us, including our Lady-Links program.  Although we’ve restructured the way we connect with our dear friends, those ladies in our retirement community who have some type of cognitive decline including Alzheimer’s and other related types of dementia, there’s one thing that hasn’t changed…our spirit!  We are 100 percent committed to making their lives better!  And that means, in part, working to help find a cure for Alzheimer’s.  So when this year’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s had to be modified because of COVID 19, we were still “all in” which meant wearing masks and walking in small groups.  Even our opening ceremony was different this year….it was virtual!

 

The big announcement came during our virtual opening….our retirement community raised about $27,000 for research to help end Alzheimer’s!  That represented the largest amount raised by a group in our county!!  The Lady-Links, their families and friends, and the families of their dear friends were a significant part of that fund raising effort and a very enthusiastic part of the walk.

 

Even the dogs walked!

A very special part of our group included some of the husbands of our dear friends.

The Lady-Links are honored to have the husband of our very first dear friend continue to be very involved in our group.  Lady-Links started in 2012 for his wife,  and he has always been supportive and encouraging of our program even though she passed away several years ago.  He is a leader in our community and in our county towards informing people about Alzheimer’s as well as in raising funds.  He says that his bucket list includes being a part of the effort of identifying the first Alzheimer’s survivor, and that would mean that a cure was found!!!

According to the Alzheimer’s Association, more than 5 million Americans of all ages have Alzheimer’s.  All of us walked for the same purpose…we want to put an end to Alzheimer’s and all other related types of dementia.

What makes a nice day for you?  For the Lady-Links, it is something that involves our dear friends and, when chocolate is added, that would make a nice day nicer!  My husband couldn’t wait to offer his help when he heard the word “chocolate” in the planning of how the Lady-Links would celebrate national “Have A Nice Day.”  Bless his heart (as we say in Texas) wasn’t that “nice” of him to volunteer to count the number of packages of chocolate and to sort them in bags of equal size to give to our dear friends and their husbands or caregivers? (It wouldn’t be “nice” if I reported on whether or not any of the chocolates disappeared!  I will leave that to your imagination.)  All I can say is that he did have a nice day!!!  (He really is helpful and supportive of Lady-Links as are many of the husbands,  and he does a great job of making my days “nicer” regardless of whether chocolate is involved or not!)

While my husband was “sorting” the chocolates, I worked on making the stickers that the Lady-Links would use to decorate the sacks which would be filled with the bags of deliciousness!

The next morning, the Lady-Links met to assemble the project COVID style.  That means wearing masks, social distancing, working in small groups and sanitizing the tables and chairs.

 

When we finished decorating and filling the sacks, we shared stories about what else….chocolate!  Many of us talked about memories of our mothers teaching us to make fudge or of baking chocolate cakes.  Others remembered boxes of chocolates they were given as gifts.  Two ladies shared their experiences of touring the Hershey’s  factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania and of the wonderful smell of chocolate that seemed to linger over the entire town.  It was a special time of sharing stories and hoping that our sacks of chocolate would inspire some of the same types of memories with our dear friends.  It was a great way to celebrate national “Have A Nice Day.”

Fall has arrived, bringing with it a renewed determination to celebrate the season regardless of the circumstances we face with COVID restrictions.  The Lady-Links can find ways to safely gather to stay connected to one another and, at the same time, create a craft project letting our dear friends know we’re still connected to them too!  We’re not going to let COVID rob us of the joy we have when we get together.  We follow the protocols that are necessary for our health and safety, and feel confident that we are doing the right thing.   This cheerful doorhanger was fun to make and will help our dear friends, those ladies in our community in various stages of cognitive decline, know that we’re thinking of them.

Purpose accomplished…Fall is welcomed…Doorhangers are ready to be delivered…Love and laughter shared!

“Hello Fall”….and one day we’ll be able to say “Good-bye COVID.”  But until then, we’ll continue to make the best of a difficult season of life because that’s what the Lady-Links do!

The Lady-Links are grateful that COVID can’t stop them from expressing how much they treasure their relationships with their dear friends, those ladies in our community who are in various stages of cognitive decline.  Although we are prevented from making in-person visits to our dear friends because of restrictions brought on by COVID, we have found multiple ways to stay connected.  Recognizing how blessed we are to have spent time before COVID with these ladies, we decided to celebrate World Gratitude Day by making cards that express our gratefulness for their friendship even though we have to remain apart.

The cards were designed specifically for World Gratitude Day and recognized our community’s goal of sharing messages of kindness and gratefulness during this month.

Some of the Lady-Links met to make these cards, following the social distancing guidelines, wearing masks, and limiting our number of participants to less than ten at any one time.

We began by selecting the messages used for the inside of the card or as additions to the card.

Once we made our selections, the creativity began.  Multiple messages of love, hope, kindness and gratefulness were assembled.

Not only will these messages of gratitude inspire and encourage our dear friends, but they will strengthen our relationship with them as well.  In addition, we Lady-Links felt a special time of bonding with one another as we made the cards and shared from our own experiences how we’ve found things for which we’re grateful even during this time of COVID.  It’s amazing how an attitude of gratitude can spread collectively throughout a group to increase feelings of joy, peace and hope within each individual.

Before we left the room to deliver our cards to our dear friends, we made sure we sanitized the room so others could have a safe and healthy environment.  This simple act of thoughtfulness and concern for others is a way of expressing gratitude for living in a community where we all care about each other.

Gratitude…there are many ways to express it and many ways that it benefits both the giver and the receiver.  The Lady-Links know this from experience and are grateful to continue to celebrate even if it is COVID style.

We prepared for a Labor Day Celebration with our dear friends in mind, those ladies in our retirement community with various types of cognitive decline, by making patriotic crafts to send to them.  COVID restrictions are such that we can’t make in-person visits, but we certainly know how to keep connected through crafts, cards, notes, phone calls and sending other special items of interest that we know they will enjoy!

“COVID style” means that a small group of Lady-Links get together, wearing masks and social distancing, to share love and laughter while we work on a project that will let our dear friends know we continue to value their friendship and that we’re still in this together!  For Labor Day, we made a God Bless America craft and then packaged a smiley face craft we previously made prior to COVID to send to our dear friends.

Our craft manager had everything organized and ready to assemble.

The finished product is a door hanger that will help our dear friends celebrate this patriotic holiday!

Prior to COVID, when we were making in-person visits, we put together an assortment of patriotic smiley faces.  We included those along with our God Bless America craft to make for several days of celebration.

Happy Labor Day from the Lady-Links to you!

The Lady-Links aren’t going to let a little thing like the hottest day of the year stop them from making crafts for their dear friends.  Although some like it hot, we decided that to avoid a heat stroke,  this would be one of those days that our group of eight needed to move inside, COVID style.

Social distancing, wearing masks, and limiting our time to 30 minutes were still the guidelines for our health and safety.  It didn’t escape our notice that our craft reflected what was happening outside…a blazing sun. Only this sun had sunglasses!  Appropriate for 104 degrees in the shade! Each Lady-Link had her own craft items, organized for us by our craft manager.  We don’t share any supplies which is in line with our COVID restrictions.

The sun magnets will be a great reminder of how we kept our cool during the hottest day of the year!

The Lady-Links are dedicated to the friendship connections among each other and with their dear friends.  We’ll do what it takes to keep those connections “hot” meaning energized and enthusiastic.  With that friendship description in mind, the Lady-Links would agree…”We all like it hot!”

Everyone can use some laughter in their lives, right?  Especially now…when we’re dealing with the Coronavirus and all the concerns associated with it. Finding something to laugh about is important to help us during these difficult times.  So how do we do that?  Leave it to the Lady-Links to come up with the answer!  We celebrated National “Tell A Joke” Day with each other and with our dear friends, COVID style!

The first step was to collect jokes from the Lady-Links and compile them into a Joke Book that we could share.

The second thing was to get together as Lady-Links to read and share these jokes. Of course, this was done COVID style using masks, social distancing, and limiting our number of participants to 10 or less.

Our “audience” laughed and applauded our efforts so we knew we were on the right track.

Even the Bible says “A cheerful heart is good medicine…”(Proverbs 17:22) so between the audience and the Bible, we were all set.  By the way, speaking of medicine …

What’s the difference between a hill and a pill?  A hill is hard to get up and a pill is hard to get down.

Sorry…I couldn’t resist that….yes, the hill/pill riddle is part of our Joke Book!

The next step was to package the Joke Books and deliver to our dear friends.

Ready for delivery!

More samples….

Why is Cinderella bad at soccer?   Because she runs away from the ball.

How do you know hot is faster than cold?   Because you can catch a cold.

We even included some Words of Wisdom to laugh about…

If it were easy to raise kids, it never would have started with something called labor.

Letting the cat out of the bag is a whole lot easier than putting it back in.

Does running late count as exercise?

Okay, hope you’re laughing (or maybe giving a good natured groan) by now.  But if not, here’s the dedication from our Joke Book which will surely make you smile:

“We hope you have enjoyed this first-ever Lady-Links Joke Book.  We think that laughter helps make each day better and that our lives are enriched when we sprinkle that laughter with love.  These jokes are some of our favorites, and the Lady-Links want to share them with you, our good friends, because….

Good friends are like the perfect bra.  Supportive.  Uncomplicated.  And able to give you a little boost when you need it.”

We hope this added a little “boost” to your day!

What a fun event to celebrate. . . National Chocolate Chip Cookie Day…I don’t think it can get any better than this!  The Lady-Links decided to send chocolate chip cookies to our dear friends, those ladies with memory loss or other types of cognitive decline who live in our retirement community.  The cookies were baked fresh that morning by the dining services staff, ready for us to deliver.  We just had to figure out how to do that COVID style!

 

Step 1 – We decided to decorate sacks with “baking-themed stickers” we made so that we could easily transport the cookies.

Step 2 – We requested that the dining services team package the cookies for us so we wouldn’t touch the actual cookie itself.

Step 3 – Eight of us met outside (a requirement for group meetings) in an area that we sanitized, wearing masks and using social distancing.

Step 4 – The fun began as the Lady-Links decorated the sacks with the stickers and enjoyed a social time together in the 30-minutes we are allowed for group events.

Step 5 – Disinfecting the area we used.

Step 6 – Changing locations to the home of one of the Lady-Links to repeat the process of decorating the sacks, but this time with a new group of recipients in mind….the husbands of our dear friends.  We didn’t want to leave them out!  To arrange for an indoor event, we continued to follow COVID restrictions set by our retirement community by limiting our number to four people, wearing masks, using social distancing and keeping within a 30 minute time line.

Although there were many steps in this COVID-regulated process, we didn’t mind.  The benefits far outweighed any inconveniences. We enjoyed getting together to do something for our dear friends (and to the husbands), knowing that it would help them feel connected to us in this time when social isolation can have serious consequences.  But it also brought us out of our social isolation too.  Friendships matter, and we are thankful to be a part of extending love and laughter,  COVID style!

Just look at the smile on the face of one of our dear friends holding her sack of chocolate chip cookies.  This picture was taken by one of her health care workers and sent to us since COVID regulations prevent us from doing an in-person visit.  Connecting with chocolate chip cookies.  Can’t think of anything better!

The Lady-Links made beautiful bouquets of flowers for their dear friends.  The idea originated from one of the Lady-Links who has a garden spot assigned to her at our retirement community.  She generously offered her zinnias to us and even organized the event according to the COVID restrictions for health and safety, including wearing masks and social distancing.

She demonstrated where to cut the flowers and how to group them according to the size of vases we selected.

Everyone had a great time selecting and arranging their flowers.

The Lady-Links had fun together while making beautiful bouquets, giving us an opportunity to socialize.

Each dear friend was delighted to receive her special bouquet, helping to ease the feeling of social isolation that is a part of this COVID timeline.

Lady-Links care and are making every effort to help their dear friends feel linked to love.

Overcoming COVID restrictions, eight of the Lady-Links used social distancing and masks while meeting outside to make crafts to send to our dear friends, those ladies in our community in various stages of cognitive decline.  Whew!  That was a lot of regulations, but we created a safe and healthy environment where we had FUN!  Our best “friend” was our tape measure!

Six feet or more was the standard we used in setting up our tables and chairs and, of course, sanitizing them with help from one of our husbands!

Everyone had their own work space on a covered porch.  The temperature was 97 degrees, but  thankfully the shade plus the ceiling fans made it feel like it was only 96 degrees! Ha!

Our craft manager had everything ready for us and demonstrated what we were to do in the 30 minutes we were allotted to meet as a group, according to restrictions set by our community.  Each Lady-Link was given a package of craft pieces that, when assembled, would make a cheerful door hanger.

We had a delightful time knowing that this socialization was good for us as Lady-Links and that the craft we were making would bring joy to each of our dear friends.

Before long, we each finished our craft.

With a few minutes to spare, each of us shared what we were doing during this time of restricted activity.  It was a blessing to hear the Lady-Links describe some of the positives in their lives in spite of the difficult circumstances currently surrounding our community, state, nation and world.  But that didn’t surprise any of us….the Lady-Links always know how to bring love and laughter wherever they are.

The Lady-Links will continue to work within the COVID restrictions to find ways to encourage and uplift our dear friends until we can safely resume our in-person visits.