In case anyone has not thought about this. I had an hour to get something together when Hospice decided they needed the bed and wanted my mom moved out. I took a 50 cent huge posterboard and filled it with photos of all our family and frineds. I put it at her eye level when she would be in bed. The care giver told me my mom has made a ritual of rolling over after being in bed for a second, looking at the pictures then going to sleep. She does the same in the morning. I have also been working on scanning a ton of pix of long time friends and houses my folks lived in and places familiar to my folks, and I have e-mail long time friends to send me old pic of them with my parents and a current on of them to include in the photo project; I intend to put the pic into one of of those digital frames that I can set at a slow pace so she can enjoy them. fOne can always take your pic to WalGreens, WalMart or anyplace and make a hardbound photo book with your own captions for under 20.00, you can also go online to Pigtales or Shutterly and do the same thing, Pretty inexpensive.
I hate to say, but after she passes, and my Dad someday, the job of gathering pictures is already taken care of. I wanted both of my folks to enjoy the pic now. My son also gave my mom a slim line, Cd player, only 1 CD and it's so slim its on her dresser. She listens to her favorite music at night to go to sleep with. I am trying to come up with other ideas to offer comfort for her. If anyone has any ideas, please pass them on.
My mom now has two rituals. Looking at her picture poster and listening to music every night and morning. I want to provide more while she is still able to do things with a little assistance. She actually has conversations, but we need to bring up the subjects and she takes off an talks. Since I live in San Diego and she in AZ. In addtion to my week long visits to see her, I called twice a day and have a Grandmother rembers list of questions. I can ask her about her childhood, what she did, etc and she answers. So even long distance I am learing more about my mom that was always closed before ALZ, and I am creating a wonderful memory book for us all.
I also buy those already made pretty patchwork pillowshams you can get at any Marshalls or TJ Maxx. I used color fabric markers. On one side I have the kids, grandkids and all of us kids writh our love to her on the back so she has a "hug" from us every day. I've done this also for other friends going through difficult times. I keep the front clean and just write or draw on the backside so they leave it on the bed.
Another project I did was for a teenager that was dying. He was in the hospital in and out of a coma.He thought he was just asleep when he woke up. I took a queen size flat sheet and tore it into perfect 12 x 12 squares. I then gave one person the bag of colored fabric markers to make a square and pass it on. In 2 days we had all of the squares returned to me and I found a quilting group that offered for free to put our quilt together. When this teenager woke from his coma, on the wall he saw this great blanket of love and some friends even had thier pictures ironed on. (a simple packet from Wal Mart shows you how to do this) When he passed oh, his mother kept the quilt on her bed to feel him every day in her soul.
If anyone has any ideas, it would be great to pass them on. I do want to keep my grouchy Dad feeling like part of this so I will see what I can get him to help with. I made my own mom to me pillow. When she passes I will always have it and will probaby spritz it every now and then with White Shoulders colonge, Danielle danielle920392004 (at) yahoo.com
I selected some photos taken over the last 50 years concerning my wife M and put them in a digital picture "frame." She watches it frequently throughout the day. She is stage 6+ and sits in her favorite chair looking at pictures in books and magazines most of the day. The brilliant colors and animation make the frame a winner in our situation.
My husband wanted a frame too, and I did two differrent slide shows for him. He got bored with it, but I think in time we will both be glad I got the frame. One of my projects to do is more slide shows.
I also got a digital frame, and i keep it on all thetime. It's full of photos of trips we took and our grandkids, and kids. In addition, I convinced him a few yrs ago to write a 'book' of his life. he did it, and got to 1971 (when we met) before the memories failed him. But now, he reads the book and it rememds him of his life, I call the book, dicks life BC... Before Chris! I am so glad I did that. Whenever he can't remember something, we go to the book.
I can't wait to get started on a memory quilt for my husband for christmas . what a wonderful idea. also thought about the digtal frame last year but did not get enough pictures to carry it along . my husband now looks at photos and wants to know who the people are. thank you so much for the inspiration. sometimes i get bogged down into the muck and see myself out.
When we had our 50th wedding anniversary 4 years ago, the kids helped me put together a slide show of our life together, starting when we were each less than one year old (our parents were friends) and coming up to the present. Last night I ran that show on my computer. My wife really enjoyed it as we made comments about the various activities. I'll do that again, maybe running it slower so we can discuss some of the events.