Finishing Touches – Alzheimer’s & Reminiscing

We still share many of our ways with our distant ancestors; the hunters and gatherers. I can confidently say that; to gather, in other words, gathering together possessions, is an intrinsic and somewhat intuitive process.

And as we gather, each gathering becomes a breadcrumb on our life’s path. Every belonging, every car, piece of furniture, hat and shoe; each a link along our life’s trail. Each connected to a time, a place, state of affairs, emotion/s, thought/s and a whole neural library of other information. These crumbs of information become etchings in our mind. They become memories.

But as some begin to loose those precious memories of ‘how my wife and I went on a vacation to Turkey, and how we fell in love with the coffee there and brought back a traditional Turkish coffee pot,’ or the memory of ‘how good it felt to play in the corn fields as children with my two brothers,’ the only link of remembrance they have is that one possession… The traditional Turkish coffee pot that sits on my table. The old landscape painting of us boys playing in the corn field, painted by my father. These are the remaining triggers to my past. Sometimes I find myself looking at them, wondering. And then suddenly, I remember.

That antiquitous pedal organ that has been in the family for generations. Simply looking at it evokes an ocean of rich imagery and colourful melody.

We gather memories in the form of photographs and place them within our home as gateways into the past. Being encouraged to tell another person about our photographs allows us to dive into a river of memory. And even though that river may dry up at some point, the emotion remains and it remains stimulating for me to simply look at them.

 Even a piece of furniture can anchor deep seated memories and emotions. And with the proper encouragement, a whole story can surface.

Religious symbols can also tell a story and keep memories alive.

For those who enjoyed reading, books can be very meaningful and provide for long periods of stimulation.

The key is emotion. And it’s the quality of the emotion that largely determines whether a memory is formed and later, retrieved. Thus one shouldn’t look down upon the validity of what is recalled but rather the emotional content that is elicited. Therein lies the purpose of reminiscing. Namely, that of establishing a connection to the past and seeing where that takes them. By having such breadcrumbs of the past in one’s room, it produces the constant potential to greatly give meaning and purpose to one’s life. Here, at the Jura Care Village, we encourage our resident’s families to personalize their loved one’s room as much as possible. We do this because it works.[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]