Sometimes it’s better to laugh than to cry. This can be very true when caring for an Alzheimer’s patient. I wrote this poem about taking my mother for her evaluation and published it in my first book about Alzheimer’s caregiving, Mosaic Moon. I did this reading at the Hawaii Child & Family Services luncheon earlier [...]
Archive for the ‘Alzheimer’s Disease’ Category
Diagnosis: Genius Rejected – VIDEO
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Dignity in Aging, Elder Care, My Books, Poetry, tagged Mosaic Moon on May 23, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Hawaii Child and Family Services Luncheon
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Dignity in Aging, Elder Care, Events, My Books, tagged 15 Craigside, Hawaii Child & Family Services on May 18, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Something very special happens whenever I’m among caregivers of loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease and my session for the Hawaii Child and Family Services, Gerontology Department was no different. Valorie Taylor of CFS and their sponsor, 15 Craigside (a continuing care retirement community), turned out the Aloha Mat with style. Rod, a caregiver for his [...]
Wordsworth at Grandma Rosey’s Story Hour
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Events, My Books, tagged Life Care Center of Hilo, Wordsworth Dances the Waltz on April 19, 2012 | 2 Comments »
Wordsworth is very excited because his story, Wordsworth Dances the Waltz, is going to be read next month at the Life Care Center of Hilo. Article and photo from the Hilo Tribune Herald: All keiki age 5 and older are invited to the new monthly Grandma Rosey’s Story Hour series at the Life Care Center [...]
SEMINAR: Empowering the Caregiver
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Events, tagged Satsuki Ina, seminar, Triple-R on April 16, 2012 | Leave a Comment »
Empowering the Caregiver -The Unique Experience of Memory Loss Caregiving- Friday, May 11, 2012 Sierra Health Foundation 8:00am- 1:00pm Presented by Triple-R Adult Day Program Click on the flyer for more details
Nursing Facilities: part two
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Elder abuse, Elder Care, tagged Alzheimer's Association, Nursing Facilities on March 6, 2012 | 3 Comments »
continued from last posting: The nursing staff and I sat in groups of five or less and brainstormed on this list of commitments which we titled : Let Me Make a Difference. If you wish to do the same with your loved one’s nursing home staff, I suggest that they create their own list to [...]
Nursing Facilites: Final Home
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Elder abuse, Elder Care, tagged Alzheimer's Association, Nursing Facilities, Santa Cruz Alzheimer's Association on February 29, 2012 | 3 Comments »
Turning Nursing Facilities Into a Home At our last writing support group for caregivers, the subject of nursing facilities arose, threaded with guilt for “putting mom or dad away.” I speak from my own experiences of having my mother in a nursing facility during the last one and a half years of her life. I [...]
Wanted: Friends for Caregivers
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Elder Care, tagged Alzheimer's Association, Caregivers, Friendship during caregiving, Men and Women caregivers on September 5, 2011 | 6 Comments »
A Plea from Caregivers: Last week I discovered how easy it is to be friend. I visited Genie who lost her mother and we just sat in the living room. We spoke if we wanted to, but most of the time, we were quiet. We didn’t need words to fill the silence. We didn’t need [...]
A Caregiver’s Good-Bye
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Elder Care, tagged A Caregiver's Tribute, Alzheimer's Association, Breaking the Silence:A Caregiver's Voice on August 29, 2011 | 2 Comments »
Genie Mitchell, caregiver, posted this after losing her mother to Alzheimer’s Disease. My mother, my sweet mom, died today. Ever since we moved in together eight years ago, I knew – and dreaded – that I would be the one to find her dead, and this morning it happened. Yet I was still shocked; I [...]
Two Normal Worlds
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Elder Care, tagged Alzheimer's, Alzheimer's Association, Bless the Elderly, Breaking the Silence:A Caregiver's Voice, Mosaic Moon: Caregiving Through Poetry, Two Normals in Caregiving, What is normal, Wordsworth Dances the Waltz on August 5, 2011 | 5 Comments »
What is Normal in Alzheimer’s Disease What is normal? Normal is like Beauty, all in the eyes of the beholder. When I was a caregiver for my mother who had Alzheimer’s disease, I saw two normal worlds between us, hers and mine. Once I acknowledged that her world was as normal to her as mine [...]
Caregiving & “Lying”
Posted in Alzheimer's Disease, Caregiving, Elder Care, tagged Alzheimer's Association, April Poetry Month, Breaking the Silence:A Caregiver's Voice, Caregiving, Lies in Caregiving, Mosaic Moon: Caregiving Through Poetry, NPR, Sacramento Poetry Center, Thou Shalt Lie in Caregiving on April 30, 2011 | 7 Comments »
The Bus is Coming Did you hear that great story the other day (NPR) about a care home in Dusseldorf? Older, dementia patients were always running away, trying to get back to their old homes, or wanting to get downtown, or just wandering away on “journeys”. One day, one of the residents came to the [...]
Frances Kakugawa
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