One of our dementia clients can be salty at times. I was engaged with another client when I heard her say, “You b****.”, rather loudly. Looking over at her, I saw she was smiling. I smiled back and said, “What did you say?” She replied, “What?” so I said, “I’m not sure what you said.” With a wide smile and a twinkle in her eye, she said, “I just said I love you!” I giggled back, “Well, that’s good, ’cause I love you, too.”

Having a conversation with a person who has dementia doesn’t have to make sense. It’s all about connecting and companionship.

A resident, “Diana”, seems to always wake up happy and smiling – her eyes dance! One day, she just wasn’t her smiley self. As our staff member was helping Diana dress, she tried to coax a smile with jokes and their regular morning banter. After having exhausted all the usual, the staff member tried, “How about we have pigs feet for breakfast?”. Well, that certainly got Diana’s attention! She exclaimed, “Pigs feet?!” with a huge smile and those dancing eyes.

Our caregivers deliver top-quality care paired with one-on-one social interaction and companionship. We believe every day is a chance to enhance our clients’ overall happiness and quality of life.

Paula and a couple of residents were watching a movie in the Sunroom together when “Karen” strode purposefully toward the TV and began to speak directly to the actors on the screen. It seemed Karen wanted to help when she said, “Honey, Honey, you don’t understand! Honey, Honey.”, over and over again. Rather than ignoring Karen’s behavior, Paula began to laugh. Karen joined in – proof that laughter truly is the best medicine!

Paula’s playfulness with Karen is an example of how we sustain a calm and peaceful setting.

Taking care of a severe dementia lady. I often tell her ” I gotchu”.

I never realized how much it meant, until one morning when she got up, held out her hand to stop me, and said, “I Gotchu.”

The things we do or say truly matter.

Just for Laughs

An elderly couple had dinner at another couple’s house, and after eating, the wives left the table and went into the kitchen. The two gentlemen were talking, and one said, “Last night we went out to a new restaurant and it was really great. I would recommend it very highly.”

The other man said, “What is the name of the restaurant?”

The first man thought and thought and finally said, “What is the name of that flower you give to someone you love? You know… the one that’s red and has thorns.”

“Do you mean a rose?”

“Yes, that’s the one,” replied the man.

He then turned towards the kitchen and yelled, “Rose, what’s the name of that restaurant we went to last night?”

---

A Perfect Marriage?

A man and woman had been married for more than 60 years. They had shared everything. They had talked about everything. They had kept no secrets from each other, except that the little old woman had a shoe box in the top of her closet that she had cautioned her husband never to open or ask her about.

For all of these years, he had never thought about the box, but one day, the little old woman got very sick and the doctor said she would not recover.

In trying to sort out their affairs, the little old man took down the shoe box and took it to his wife’s bedside.

She agreed that it was time that he should know what was in the box. When he opened it, he found two crocheted dolls and a stack of money totaling $95,000.

He asked her about the contents. “When we were to be married,” she said, “my grandmother told me the secret of a happy marriage was to never argue. She told me that if I ever got angry with you, I should just keep quiet and crochet a doll.”

The little old man was so moved; he had to fight back tears. Only two precious dolls were in the box. She had only been angry with him two times in all those years of living and loving. He almost burst with happiness.

“Honey,” he said, “that explains the dolls, but what about all of this money? Where did it come from?”

“Oh,” she said. “That’s the money I made from selling the dolls.”

---

Two elderly women were eating breakfast in a restaurant one morning. Ethel noticed something funny about Mabel’s ear and she said, “Mabel, did you know you’ve got a suppository in your left ear? ” Mabel answered, “I have a suppository?” She pulled it out and stared at it. Then she said, “Ethel, I’m glad you saw this thing. Now I think I know where my hearing aid is.”

---

An elderly woman had just returned to her home from an evening at church service when she was startled by an intruder. As she caught the man in the act of robbing her home of its valuables, she yelled, “STOP! ACTS 2:38!” (Repent and be baptized, in the name of the lord, so that your sins may be forgiven.)

The burglar stopped in his tracks. The woman calmly called the police and explained what she had done. As the officer cuffed the man to take him in, he asked the burglar, “Why did you just stand there? All the old lady did was yell scripture at you.”

“SCRIPTURE?!” replied the burglar, “She said she had an AXE and TWO 38’s!

---

Hospital regulations require a wheelchair for patients being discharged. However, while working as a student nurse, I found one elderly gentleman–already dressed and sitting on the bed with a suitcase at his feet–who insisted he didn’t need my help to leave the hospital. After a chat about rules being rules, he reluctantly let me wheel him to the elevator. On the way down I asked him if his wife was meeting him. “I don’t know,” he said. “She’s still upstairs in the bathroom changing out of her hospital gown.”

I’M STILL HERE

My looks are nothing special,
My face reveals my age,
My body shows some wear and tear,
And my energy’s not the same.

Too often my memory fails me,
And I lose things all the time.
One minute I know what I plan to do,
And the next it may just slip my mind.

I try hard to avoid my mirror.
There are things I would rather not see,
And even those times when I just catch a glimpse,
I can no longer recognize me.

The things I used to do with ease
Can now cause aches and pains,
And the quality of the things I do
Will never be quite the same.

I always compare my older self
To those younger versions of me,
And I know I’m wasting too much time
Missing who I used to be.

But the thing that really makes me sad
Is despite what people see,
Underneath my tattered, worn out shell,
I’m still the same old me.

My heart can still feel endless love,
And at times it still can ache.
My heart can fill with so much joy,
And then it can suddenly break.

My soul can still feel sympathy
And longs for forgiveness and peace,
And there are times its light shines boldly through,
And times when it longs for release.

It’s true, maybe now that I’m older,
Feeling lonely may be status quo,
But it also has made me more willing
To forgive and let past conflicts go.

So maybe to some I look ugly and old,
A person who barely exists.
I’m still quite aware of the beauty inside,
And my value should not be dismissed.

So although not as strong and no beauty, it’s true,
I’m still here and want so much to live,
And I know that there’s no one in this world quite like me,
And no one who has more to give.

Patricia A Fleming. “I Still Matter.” Family Friend Poems, September 26, 2017. https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/i-still-matter

This is a test of the Ellna’s Adult Home Care blog system.  This is only a test.  Had it been a real blog post, information would have been included.

Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. Edit or delete it, then start writing!