Thank you ladies for sharing such beautiful stories! It is important to focus on the positive moments when you're dealing with this disease, and what GREAT stories these are!

Two Generations Shared the Light of Their Lives

When my daughter was young, my grandparents lived in the assisted living wing of a local retirement community. Sharing their apartment pod was a woman who had dementia.  She rarely recognized people who spent time with her regularly--family, caregivers, neighbors.

Hayley and I would visit Pop and Granny several times a week.  We would always say hello to that sweet woman, and she would always ask my daughter's name, and my little preschooler would shout out, "Hayley!"  One day, we noticed the elderly woman sitting in her wheelchair, head down, disoriented, and moaning. My daughter skipped toward her-her body expressing all the joy that fills a four-year-old's heart. As the woman heard Hayley's voice, she looked up, and a grin crept across her face. My young child scrambled up into her lap, and the woman called out, "Hayley!" Hayley gave her a kiss, hopped down, then pushed her chair a bit. The woman began laughing. Hayley giggled then told her, "We're going to see Granny and Pop." The lady, warmed by Hayley's presence, held out her hand and touched Hayley's shoulder. Regardless of the dementia, in that moment, both generations shared the light of their lives.

~Cameron

Laughter is the Best Medicine

It's important to focus on the positive moments when you're dealing with this disease. It can be frustrating to have to repeat things over and over and over again to someone with Alzheimer's who has no recollection of a conversation you may have just had with them. That being said, it can also be an opportunity to offer someone joy repeatedly as well. There was this joke I used to tell my Tata (literally over and over again) and it would make her laugh every time, which made all of us laugh with joy every time because she was having such fun!