Filling the emptiness of death

This last week we have faced the death of another friend, a very dear 57-year-old man named Michael, the person I wrote the poem about on Saturday. He has had to live in an aged care facility for the last 18 months, and I am sure his experience of living in aged care, in his mid fifties has been quite difficult for…

Memories of Tewantin

Friendship, food, wine, fun Living well in the slow lane Tastes of paradise             Valerie and John Flanked by boisterous Molly Socks pulled off last night!                 Too much wine but, Oh Such delicious tasting food Cooked with tools and love        …

Reflections, Memories and Narrative Therapy

The following is a reflection I wrote after my first piece of writing done for a university writing course, writing about a place, and I chose to write about the new place I was in, living with dementia, which ended up being published: “I have chosen my newly diagnosed dementia as a place to write…

Dementia and Memories

This morning I read a wonderful story written by Bob De Marco called Memories, Memory, Alzheimer’s Dementia, on his blog the Alzheimer’s Reading Room. His devotion and willingness to provide care for his mother Dotty who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease about 8 years ago was inspiring, as is the fact that throughout his loss…

Memories and parenting

A tough topic for today! Parenting is something I have tried to consider consciously every day, and living with dementia means I try even harder. It is so easy to get lost in parenting, in the sense of parenting by rote the same way you were parented. It is also very easy to blame parents for…

Blogging and dementia

The Fight Dementia National Campaign which had a focus on younger onset dementia, awareness and funding has also continued for me. I recently spoke at the ‘March on Dementia’ campaign in Canberra, have spoken at several service provider group forums and training sessions, and just recently as a guest speaker at the WordCamp Gold Coast 2011 conference.…