angel_bear
03-09-2005, 11:43 PM
Just a thought to share with everybody.
For MIL's birthday, I made her a mini photo album. I got a 9cm" x 9cm scrapbooking outer cover, and bought the inside sleeves that turned it into a little booklet. On the outside I decorated it with some of my quilling flowers, and put alphabet stickers on it saying "MY ALBUM" ..
When she opened it up, on the left was more stickers saying Happy Birthday" and her birthdate. On the first sleeve, I put a piece of paper with a photo of her on it, and the word stickers saying "MY FAMILY" ... as she turned each page, there was a family member ...
I used scrapbooking embellishments to decorate each page in something that had something to do with the person. EG: FIL and niece were BIG into hockey, so they had hockey sticks and puck's adorning their page. I like cats, so mine had cats' on it .. for those I didn't know, they got flowers, cause MIL likes flowers. I managed to put 17 photo's of family members in that album!!
I'm going to do another one of further away family and best friends ... because she now carries that little album around with her CONSTANTLY!! She's very very proud of it!!
So .. perhaps you could do that for your Loved One .. a Remembering Album.
Cheers
Sally
For MIL's birthday, I made her a mini photo album. I got a 9cm" x 9cm scrapbooking outer cover, and bought the inside sleeves that turned it into a little booklet. On the outside I decorated it with some of my quilling flowers, and put alphabet stickers on it saying "MY ALBUM" ..
When she opened it up, on the left was more stickers saying Happy Birthday" and her birthdate. On the first sleeve, I put a piece of paper with a photo of her on it, and the word stickers saying "MY FAMILY" ... as she turned each page, there was a family member ...
I used scrapbooking embellishments to decorate each page in something that had something to do with the person. EG: FIL and niece were BIG into hockey, so they had hockey sticks and puck's adorning their page. I like cats, so mine had cats' on it .. for those I didn't know, they got flowers, cause MIL likes flowers. I managed to put 17 photo's of family members in that album!!
I'm going to do another one of further away family and best friends ... because she now carries that little album around with her CONSTANTLY!! She's very very proud of it!!
So .. perhaps you could do that for your Loved One .. a Remembering Album.
Cheers
Sally
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BarbaraH
03-10-2005, 12:08 AM
Hi Sally -
Excellent idea!! It's wonderful that she loves it so much and that you thought to do it. The extra touches you added make it extra special.
There may come a time when an album of her childhood family will make her happy if she remembers that time in her life as current like my mother did.
Hugs - Barbara :)
Excellent idea!! It's wonderful that she loves it so much and that you thought to do it. The extra touches you added make it extra special.
There may come a time when an album of her childhood family will make her happy if she remembers that time in her life as current like my mother did.
Hugs - Barbara :)
angel_bear
03-10-2005, 12:47 AM
There's the problem .. no photo's of growing up .. her parents died when she and her brother were very young, MIL had to fight Welfare in England to keep her brother with her.... There's very little to go by, and of course, when I find a picture, she can't tell me who it is .. *insert frazzled look here*
But that's a good idea for others who have history !!
Hugs
Sally
But that's a good idea for others who have history !!
Hugs
Sally
Martha H
03-10-2005, 03:55 AM
Sally, I congratulate you. In the midst of being abused and overworked and frazzled, you had the love and kindness to spend hours making a beautiful scrapbook for MIL, rememering her as Doris, your wonderful mother in law, not 'the Imposter.'
I am beginning to think people in ancient times who believed in demonic possession were only using a metaphor they could understand to explain Alzheimers and other mental illnesses .. which were obviously prevalent even then. "The things she does cannot be my real mother, so she is 'possessed' by some evil spirit." Now we have a medical explanation, but are no better off! Well, maybe some of the drugs actually work (huge skeptical look) ..
This is Day Zero: Mom goes off on her trip. I kept the suitcase and carry on in a corner of my room. In the night she was in my room with a flashlight, looking at them. I said, Mom that is your luggage, I will put it in the living room when I get up - just didn't want it to 'be in the way' this evening ...She went back to bed. This morning she had put her old toothbrush in a plastic bag, near her jacket ..forgetting that on Monday we packed a whole cosmtic bag with new toothbrush etc,
It's now around 3 AM. Bill comes at 9 to take care of her until her flight leaves at 2:45. I leave the house ar 6 .. so in 3 hours her life for the next 20 days will be in someone else's hands. I am both apprehensive and relieved. Sometimes I think the AD that runs in families isn't genetic but 'caught' like a bad cold ...
Love,
Martha
I am beginning to think people in ancient times who believed in demonic possession were only using a metaphor they could understand to explain Alzheimers and other mental illnesses .. which were obviously prevalent even then. "The things she does cannot be my real mother, so she is 'possessed' by some evil spirit." Now we have a medical explanation, but are no better off! Well, maybe some of the drugs actually work (huge skeptical look) ..
This is Day Zero: Mom goes off on her trip. I kept the suitcase and carry on in a corner of my room. In the night she was in my room with a flashlight, looking at them. I said, Mom that is your luggage, I will put it in the living room when I get up - just didn't want it to 'be in the way' this evening ...She went back to bed. This morning she had put her old toothbrush in a plastic bag, near her jacket ..forgetting that on Monday we packed a whole cosmtic bag with new toothbrush etc,
It's now around 3 AM. Bill comes at 9 to take care of her until her flight leaves at 2:45. I leave the house ar 6 .. so in 3 hours her life for the next 20 days will be in someone else's hands. I am both apprehensive and relieved. Sometimes I think the AD that runs in families isn't genetic but 'caught' like a bad cold ...
Love,
Martha
SusanNYS
03-10-2005, 08:18 PM
A memory book is a great idea! In addition to photos, you can put in magazine pictures of things your loved one used to enjoy - foods, hobbies, movies, etc. - with a narrative of each. Hopefully, it will ignite some old memories!
LuvMyLilDoggie
03-10-2005, 10:29 PM
Sally, what a beautiful gift! I'm sure she will cherish it.
Martha, how did mom's trip go?
Barb
Martha, how did mom's trip go?
Barb
Martha H
03-11-2005, 02:01 AM
Hi Barb,
Mom is safely in Ohio. There were a couple of hassles .. instead of the clothes we had laid out for her the night before (HER choices, with some guidance from me) she left the black trouserss on the bed and wore the bright green ones, with her light blue winter jacket. At the airport my brother had problems parking - one lot was closed - and he knew Mom couldn't walk that far, so her had to drop her off and come back later. he told her to go in, sit down and wait for him. Thank God she did that and did not wander off, get on a bus, or any of the hundred other things she could have done... Someone up there was watching over her! Bill later said he could have taken her with him to the outer parking lot and then called a cab on his cell phone, but he didn't think of it ...
I now have blessed relief for a couple of weeks, only my day job!
Love,
Martha
Mom is safely in Ohio. There were a couple of hassles .. instead of the clothes we had laid out for her the night before (HER choices, with some guidance from me) she left the black trouserss on the bed and wore the bright green ones, with her light blue winter jacket. At the airport my brother had problems parking - one lot was closed - and he knew Mom couldn't walk that far, so her had to drop her off and come back later. he told her to go in, sit down and wait for him. Thank God she did that and did not wander off, get on a bus, or any of the hundred other things she could have done... Someone up there was watching over her! Bill later said he could have taken her with him to the outer parking lot and then called a cab on his cell phone, but he didn't think of it ...
I now have blessed relief for a couple of weeks, only my day job!
Love,
Martha
Twinlynn
03-11-2005, 12:30 PM
Martha - Just had to tell you how much I "enjoyed" reading the escapades of "Mom Goes To The Airport"! LOL! No one's LIVED until they've tried to see their "semi-senile" Mom packed, delivered, and safely escorted onto an airplane!! :-)
My niece's Bas Mitzvah down in Florida about 13 years ago (we all lived in New York) was a scenario only Woody Allen could have come up with. My sister and I had to pack each item for my Mom , while she systematically removed it, held it up...and questioned it again...and again...and again....
The trip to the airport and onto the plane and right through the next 3 days we were down in Florida was a non-stop journey through an Hieronymus Bosch painting!! LOL! Everything was so surreal and Mom's questions about her 3-day schedule were 24/7. By the time we got back....we were all so unbelievably tired, confused and incoherent that it would have been hard to figure out just which one of us was the dementia sufferer!!
Please have a wonderful, peaceful two weeks, Martha. You deserve it! :-)
By the way--Sally--the memory album idea is great! My Mom's "Early Stages Dementia Group" at our near-by hospital helped each member put one together. But I realize how much more valuable it would have been if we had created one with our Mom, together. She would have been far more "into" it and lots more memories would probably have popped into her head.
Sure wish I had had a Board like this when my Mom was still around. Your stories are so similar--and it would have been so comforting! I felt like I was living in the "Land of Jaberwockey" for so long, then--that I'd never find my way out again!! This is a wonderful place for you all to gather. :-) Lynn
My niece's Bas Mitzvah down in Florida about 13 years ago (we all lived in New York) was a scenario only Woody Allen could have come up with. My sister and I had to pack each item for my Mom , while she systematically removed it, held it up...and questioned it again...and again...and again....
The trip to the airport and onto the plane and right through the next 3 days we were down in Florida was a non-stop journey through an Hieronymus Bosch painting!! LOL! Everything was so surreal and Mom's questions about her 3-day schedule were 24/7. By the time we got back....we were all so unbelievably tired, confused and incoherent that it would have been hard to figure out just which one of us was the dementia sufferer!!
Please have a wonderful, peaceful two weeks, Martha. You deserve it! :-)
By the way--Sally--the memory album idea is great! My Mom's "Early Stages Dementia Group" at our near-by hospital helped each member put one together. But I realize how much more valuable it would have been if we had created one with our Mom, together. She would have been far more "into" it and lots more memories would probably have popped into her head.
Sure wish I had had a Board like this when my Mom was still around. Your stories are so similar--and it would have been so comforting! I felt like I was living in the "Land of Jaberwockey" for so long, then--that I'd never find my way out again!! This is a wonderful place for you all to gather. :-) Lynn
always smile
03-16-2005, 08:32 AM
This is a very evry nice ideai, it makes me wanna cry, i wish i heard this ideai when she was better couse now the only thing she can do is SMILE :).
& dont forget to always smile :D
& dont forget to always smile :D