Hernando County Online

I worked in a memory care unit for a few years and while there, my eyes became open to the world of Alzheimer and Dementia patients. While most people focus on the life that these patients have forgotten, they fail to realize the life that these patients continue to live.

For example, I took special notice of a quiet lady about 5ft tall named “Penny”; who never forgot to put on her rose-red lipstick and her grey sweater.

After supper, Penny would walk to the gathering room of the facility and sit in the exact same seat at the activities table every single time. It was a fairly long table made up of three put together. “Penny” would sit there for what seemed like hours. She always chose the second chair from the end, then would begin to make a series of very specific movements. With a dazed look on her face, she would extend her arms away from her body and then close again. Over and over her pale white hands would slightly open and then close. Her hands had very little age spots and tiny blue veins barely noticeable.

Penny’s finger nails, immaculately manicured and were painted the same color as her red rose lipstick. At first I was very troubled by her daily consistent sequence of motions, because I thought she might over exert herself.

Then one day, I decided to sit down next to her and learn why.  I sat and tried to engage in a conversation…but unfortunately “Penny” never once looked up at me; now I was even more determined to find out more about Penny’s actions at the table.

So the next time Penny’s family came to visit, I made it a point to beeline straight over to them to try to understand what this all meant and what they told me was the key to understanding Penny, more importantly, the key to actually communicating with Penny.

You see Penny had worked on an assembly line!! She retired from a factory where she did the same sequence of hand motions day after day, for hours on end! Wow! So “Penny” was still living in that very moment in her life! I wondered how many other patients were doing the same thing.

So, later that evening I stood in the great room of the memory care unit and looked all around me, scanning the room for activity. I saw things with new eyes and I entered the world of the past.

The past was a world of occupations which still existed in the minds of most of the people there. The residents were still going to work every single day in their minds. It was very lively. I sat next to patients and actually participated!

It was amazing, all in one afternoon, without ever leaving the building, I worked on a bridge with a contractor, I helped a seamstress sew a dress and put away the clothes. I even walked the beat with a New York Cop! My job had a whole new meaning.

I was finally getting it, I was communicating in a level that I never imagined I had become empathetic and more understanding of each patient. There was so much more to find out about each individual resident, no, not just resident, these are people just like you and me, these people are Mothers, Fathers, Aunts, Uncles Grandmothers, Grandfathers, Sons and Daughters, and our neighbors. This new understanding helped me enter into their world, so I could communicate better with them, in mine. I was being educated by each person, by each interesting movement, by each story, and little by little removing every boundary inbetween us.

For me, my life has become far more enriched because of them, and if you take the time yours will be too. 

If you have any inspiring stories to tell regarding a loved one with
Alzheimer’s or Dementia, Please tell us it in the comments section below. We would love to hear all about it.

Patria Dye