The Perfect Gift

What do you give to a loved one with Alzheimer's Disease?  Of course it depends on what stage they are in, and what their interests are, but I can tell you our family knew exactly what Gary would love this Christmas.

The gifts fell neatly into 3 categories so I will highlight a few so you can be inspired for your future gift-giving.  And you don't need to wait for Christmas or Birthdays with a dear one who has dementia.  They will appreciate a blessing at any time, since they live in the moment.

Textures

One of our grandsons made up the owl pillow which has several different fabrics. Gary enjoyed feeling the felt eyes.  The red fuzzy pom-poms were tied around a different gift and he enjoyed lacing it through his fingers.  Of course there are multiple types of interesting things to handle from wrapping paper to ribbon and boxes on Christmas morning.

 Memories

The Memory Book was my gift to Gary.  I use Shutterfly.com to create these books.  I've made several over the last year, and I choose a format that is simple and easy to read.  Today I looked slowly through it with Gary and he really looked at each page.  His eyes going from left to right, from page to page.   (Click here to read more)

The little memory card is full of digital photos from our daughter Sarah and her family to be loaded into Gary's digital photo frame.  I've shared about this great tool before here.

The Disc is loaded with Bible verses.  They are being read by our daughter, April and her husband, Jon.  They are reading them very slowly and clearly and leaving a pause in between so Gary can absorb them with his slowed thinking. The Word of God does not miss it's mark and I KNOW it is still nourishing Gary's soul even if he can't find the words to confirm it.  Today when I was playing the CD for him, he was sitting very quietly, and I believe he was listening.

Yummies

Of course this category is always appreciated.  Thankfully, Gary still has a good appetite, though he must be fed most things because he gets distracted and forgets to finish eating.  However, when being given bites of Cinnamon Roll yesterday, I evidently was taking too long in between bites (this time I was distracted), and he almost took a bite of a present he was holding instead.  It was obvious that he wanted the next bite of C.R. and we all had a good laugh. Some of his longtime favorites are represented here...Cinnamon Rolls from Sarah, Chessmen cookies and Shortbread from April, and Date Pinwheel cookies from my mom. The marshmellow Snowman is from the Grandkids and he will like it too, I guarantee.

I hope those of you who are currently caring for and loving someone with dementia, will be able to find many ways to love and serve them that they will enjoy.  We are so blessed, especially if we tone down our expectations, and keep things simple.  (and don't forget to laugh!) Gary and I both had a wonderful day yesterday and I trust you all did too. 

Gary's hugging his Memory Book right after I helped him open it.