I recently finished “Come Back Early Today: A Memoir of Love, Alzheimer’s and Joy” by Marie Marley, PhD. It is Marie’s account of her life partner’s development of dementia, spanning 7 years but also including a lot of stories from their 30+ years together. It is a story about love and about dementia (and many of the things that those encompass). Continue reading
Tag Archives: Marie Marley
10 lessons learned from people with dementia
I was happy to come across this post on Huffington Post. I was just talking with Dan Mogensen from MindBuddy about how I would like to make a documentary that highlights some of the good things about dementia (philosophical views of personhood, perception of reality, changing viewpoints, mindfulness, humor, challenging individuals and society to accept and care for people who have different cognitive processes, increased focus on quality of life, etc. – we talked about a lot of things).
While this article isn’t necessarily focused on these ideas, I like (and think it’s important) that there is a growing trend in not focusing on the doom and gloom of dementia. Life doesn’t end with a dementia diagnosis. A person’s personhood and personality don’t end with a dementia diagnosis. Relationships and social meaning don’t end with a dementia diagnosis. They will take new forms and meanings, and will give new insights if we take the time to notice. Continue reading