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It’s not it’s own language, but there’s a definite skill in being able to communicate with someone with Alzheimer’s. It’s not about the words so much as the spirit behind them. Here are my top ten tips for speaking Alzheimer’s 1. Don’t try to reason with me. You will only frustrate both of us. (NOT: […]

I have three buttons in me. Worry buttons. Hardly a day goes by, but I have my finger firmly pressed on one of them. The green one is for silly worries that I know aren’t real, but for one brief, breath-holding moment, I believe. Like that moment when you are standing in the grocery check

We have a new resident in the Courtyard Community at Christie Gardens. That, in itself, is not unusual. Because we are a continuum, people come to live in our independent apartments or life lease condominiums. Over the years, as they age, their needs change, and often they move to the Courtyard Community, where full care

The first time I experienced it was when my first husband, Bill, was sick. The first inking was a day when he was in the emergency department of our local hospital. Because we were often there in that last year, I don’t remember what precipitated this visit. It wasn’t the time he collapsed in Shopper’s

It’s the topic most people hate. Fear, even.We don’t want to think about it, yet every one of us will experience it. Dying. The care of those who are dying is often called palliative care. I used to think I knew what that meant, but I discovered it’s a far broader term than I knew.

Brenda and Greta on her 90th birthday Picture a young girl of eight or nine standing in the aisle after church. Disabled by crippling shyness, she stares at an older lady. Her enormous brown eyes, her only redeeming feature, are covered with glasses, and she shifts her chubby body from foot to foot as she

Bad new creeps up from behind and slaps you.It is shocking. Painful. Paralysing. But sometimes, while you are reeling and keening, good news puts a comforting hand on your shoulder and says. “I am here.” If you follow me at all, you know of the emotional last month with the Aviva Community Fund contest and

Where have all the poppies gone? It’s the end of November, and the poppies that were everywhere a few weeks ago have mostly disappeared. They’ve been replaced by holly and poinsettias. “To everything there is a season…”Right? I’m not sure. We said “Lest we forget.” We haven’t forgotten, exactly, but life moves on. It’s time

Geraldine was upset. Her regular caregiver was off today, and the staff member who was helping her wasn’t as familiar with her routines. She didn’t wash her the same way, and didn’t talk about what she was doing. She was friendly and efficient, but it wasn’t the same. By the time she was ready for

Barbara was devastated. Her gentle, refined auntie, who she had always loved and looked up to, had just “bitten her head off.” Barbara had entered her room for a visit, and had hugged her as she had done with every visit since she was a child. Auntie had drawn back with a scowl and growled