Category Archives: Connection with the heart

People with Alzheimer’s continue to be people right up until their last breath and, like any other human being, retain intact the need to communicate. Even when we believe them to be immersed in their own world, or when they no longer have the facility with words like before. But this does not mean they haveContinue reading “People with Alzheimer’s keep their “vital spark” intact until the very end of their lives”

I will never be able to forget your look.  Having to leave you there hurt so much, I felt like every day that passed I was leaving a little piece of my heart there with you.  To go, to leave you in that place, surrounded by people with lost minds, disoriented by pain and illness,  lostContinue reading “Look at me, I am here!”

I feel especially connected to my father in the moments when I get him to smile, and that tends to happen when he comes to greet me, when I arrive at the home. It also sometimes happens when he shares his jokes with me. His sense of humor is pretty incoherent, but it’s still there.Continue reading “From reason to emotion”

I remember his hands at the piano, where he could be for hours… He had a serious face, as he was in the middle of something more important than him… His expression showed me the great love that he had for Music. He loved it almost as much as the love he felt about herContinue reading “Moonlight Sonata”

In Moving Your Soul we have started a podcast in Spanish, and our third episode is an interview about Reminiscence in dementia. Our special guest is Raül Vilar. Here you can find some links to know more about it: European Reminiscence Network: http://www.europeanreminiscencenetwork.org/ Pam Schweitzer: http://www.pamschweitzer.com/international.html

I especially connect with my father when I watch him fly a radio-controlled mini-helicopter that I gave him. My father and I shared many years building and flying radio-control airplanes — gliders to be precise. I grew up under the strong influence of his passion for aviation and I remember that when I was aContinue reading “Shared passion”

A few days ago I received an email from a very dear friend and her words moved me so much, that I didn’t want them to be left in my email intray. That is why I asked her permission to publish an extract of the email and a photograph of her with her aunt, andContinue reading “Reunion”

Communication ended up being the most difficult part. I have to admit that it was really difficult for me to put myself in her place and internalize that, as the disease progressed, she moved backwards in terms of knowledge, language and behaviour. I never did understand that what she could do one day, with totalContinue reading “Entering her world”

You have distanced yourself from the past and maybe you don’t know about the future anymore. But for me, you’re here in the present. I still feel your mother’s love, with the certainty that it is more intense than before. You still give me shivers of happiness in exchange for nothing. Your memories disappear, andContinue reading “Letter to my Mother”

We just received from Berlin this testament to the bond between grandmother and granddaughter. Nayeli, a 17 year-old granddaughter, is trying to find a way to be with her grandmother Blanca Nieves, and from that search comes a poem. It is not the first poem we have received from family members of people with Alzheimer’s.Continue reading “Granny, poem by Nayeli to her grandmother with Alzheimer’s”