Yesterday I went to the launch of a wonderful book: a beautifully designed collection of writings from people living with dementia: Wishing for Memories.
How important to have the voices of those ‘experts by experience’, sharing their wishes and stories – and what stories they are. Past adventures and misadventures, romances, business successes, as well as health challenges… a huge variety of lives well lived!
As the introduction says: ‘…behind every diagnosis is a person with a rich and unique past, still worthy of recognition and celebration.’
In the picture you can see Angi McCluskey, who founded Forget-Me-Not Dementia Support, a registered charity that supports Forget-Me-Not Memory Cafes. There are now cafes running at 34 locations around Western Australia.
If you’d been at the launch, however, you’d have seen Angi pull many other people up to the podium, to be celebrated for their role in the project.
It must have been a huge task to gather together so many voices, but what a validating experience for everyone involved. I could really feel that as I chatted to people over an excellent morning tea (hosted by the City of Belmont).
Inspiration for everyone from Forget-Me-Not and from Act Belong Commit. Thank you! Here is the book cover!
My original name for this memory-friendly book was ‘Georgia’s Garden’, celebrating the amazing artist and keen gardener, Georgia Efford. I know her through her work with the Uthando Project grassroots charity group (for which she got an Order of Australia). Every time I went to meetings at her house in the Perth Hills, here in Western Australia, I found myself wandering outside, admiring her garden.
So when I thought about creating a book on gardening, Georgia came to mind. Would she say yes? Yes, she would!
Gardens are so different in different places, so how do you create a book that everyone can relate to? We decided that Georgia would offer her reflections on her garden and gardening, paired with her own evocative photos, and matched with questions asking the reader to think about their own gardening experience.
This is the first in a ‘Read and Chat’ series, where I hope to feature other ‘real-life’ stories with questions to chat about. Feedback so far has called this a ‘happy’ book, and that’s really what we wanted to achieve. You can see the amount of text in the picture above…just three paragraphs of extra large print per page, and each spread is a new topic.
Profits from sales will go to the Uthando Project, on Georgia’s request.
I promised I’d write some dementia-friendly fiction, but I haven’t quite got there yet. However, my lovely sister Emma writes magazine short stories and children’s books (amongst other things!) and has always encouraged me in my memory-friendly writing. So a while ago, I asked if she would consider writing some short stories adapted for mild cognitive loss.
As I’m sure you know, people living with early brain changes often find that while they can still read, they get confused as they turn the page… Who am I reading about? What’s going on? They may still want to read a story with a plot (rather than description only), but they need a little unobtrusive support to stay with the story.
Now here’s the result of Emma’s work! Two collections of large print, ‘feel-good’ stories of everyday life, the kind you’d find in a magazine. However, each new spread has a small reminder at the top of the page of who the characters are and what the story is about. Then as you read down the page, there are more small, subtle reminders of what’s happening. Here’s an example from The Perfect Pie and other stories (by Cathy Emma Laybourn).
These memory-friendly stories feature relatable situations, for example:
The Perfect Pie – Brian has promised to cook a meal for his friend Larry. But Larry keeps changing his mind about his favourite food! What can Brian do? The Beach Hunt – Moira and her grand-daughter Sophie are enjoying a day on the beach, when Sophie loses a shell bracelet. However, Moira has a solution. The Lost List – Alec arrives at the supermarket without his shopping list. But thanks to his helpful nature, he ends up with a few new friends as well as all his shopping. A Change of Garden – Jean is moving to a new flat. Although she’s looking forward to it, she will miss her garden, and especially its bird life. But her son has a surprise waiting at her new home.
Friends and family always feature, as Emma herself says:
When writing for various magazines, no matter what type of stories I wrote, the importance of friendships and family was always central – and that’s true of these stories as well.
She lives in the UK, so there are a few references to money as ‘pounds’ or to ‘thrushes and greenfinches’ in the garden, but the story themes are universal, featuring the challenges and successes of life, with a feel-good ending:
I’ve used simplified, linear storylines and straightforward but not childish language, as well as plenty of memory prompts within the story. I tried to avoid depicting the characters as elderly (although there are a couple of stories about grand-parents and their children) because not all people with memory loss are elderly, and not all elderly people think of themselves as old!
