How have you remembered your loved one with dementia?

I do not believe that God intends our loved ones with dementia or their family members and caregivers to feel as though they are alone on this journey.

Please join our page to follow a few stories as the book "Look through my eyes. What do you see?" is written as a remembrance of my loved one at https://www.facebook.com/GrandmaRubyKirby/.

When my cousin agreed to create the book cover's artwork, I was delighted that Hallie shared her talent. She is a junior in high school. It warms my heart to not only share Hallie's artwork but here are her unedited words about her creation.

"Cousin Julia asked me to do artwork for the front cover of a book she was working on about my Great-grandma Kirby who had dementia. I know now that dementia is a dreaded and difficult disease, but as a child I really didn’t realize that anything was wrong with my grandma. She was perfect to me. I knew her as a happy, joyful, fun grandma. Her eyes would light up when she saw family and she would clap her hands to show her joy. She loved to cuddle with us in a big chair…sometimes holding all four great- grandchildren at one time. Living in the same neighborhood meant we were able to visit grandma often and she was still very agile in her 80’s and would walk to our house to visit also. I enjoyed her love of the outdoors. She enjoyed flowers, even the dandelions we would pick and take to her. She would grab an old canning jar, fill it with water, and treat them like the best gift ever. In her later years, Great-grandma Kirby, after enjoying a family dinner, could be found in a comfy chair taking a little nap among the chaos of dishes being washed and the great-grandchildren running about. For the book cover, I drew a comfy chair and illustrated her love of outdoors with the butterflies, clouds, and flowers. As great-grandma suffered from dementia and had gaps in her memory, I used numerous forms of doodling to fill in the gaps in the artwork. She is in the center of the cover as great-grandma loved being the center of attention and always wanted her picture taken. She is smiling as she was always smiling and oh those teeth. Yes, they were false and she was more than happy to show us all her trick of taking them out! Just as they use color and tonal contrasts to emphasize important features for dementia patients, I incorporated many colors in my artwork. Green is a restful color and associated with life; yellow is a happy color; blue is a calming color; pink eases aggression and represents tenderness and love, Alzheimer’s disease awareness is represented by the color purple and was a favorite of Great-grandma Kirby.

I thank you Julia for creating this book in memory of a very special lady who was so loved by our entire family. It is an honor to have my artwork included in this project."