“I like it when people remember that I'm a person, not just a person with Alzheimer's.”
Source: The Things We Keep
“My short-term factual memory can be like water; events are a brief disturbance on the surface and then it closes back up again, as if nothing ever touched it. But it’s a strange fact that my long-term memory remains strong, perhaps because it recorded events when my mind was unaffected. My emotional memory is intact too, perhaps because feelings are recorded and stored in a different place than facts. The things that happened deeper in the past, and deeper in the breast, are still there for me, under the water.
I won 1,098 games, and eight national championships, and coached in four different decades. But what I see are not the numbers. I see their faces.
'Pat should get a tattoo!' The kids laughed. 'What kind should she get?'
'A heart. She should get a heart.'
Little did they know. They are the tattoos.”
Source: Sum It Up: 1,098 Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective
“Never give up hope! If you do, you be dead already.”
“Someday, I suppose I’ll give up, and sit in the rocking chair. But I’ll probably be rocking fast, because I don’t know what I’ll do without a job.”
Source: Sum It Up: 1,098 Victories, a Couple of Irrelevant Losses, and a Life in Perspective
“You only know yourself because of your memories.”
“Never give up hope. If you do, you'll be dead already.--Dementia Patient, Rose from The Inspired Caregiver”
Source: The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love
“I pray for my mother. That if she can't ever recover what she's lost or what she's losing, that she not feel like she's lost. I pray that we make her feel necessary and valued as long as possible. That she comes to know comfort, even if I can't provide it myself.”
Source: The Interruption of Everything
“What made Olive the saddest about the Gardners was that everyone wanted to be enshrined in someone’s memory. It was the only way of living on after death, really: in the minds of loved ones. Memories were the only things that made aging bearable, a way of reverting to better, simpler days.”
Source: The Repeat Year
“You will never experience personal growth, if you fear taking chances. And, you will never become successful, if you operate without integrity.”
Source: Where's My Purse?
“I believe that most caregivers find that they inherit a situation where they just kind of move into caregiving. It's not a conscious decision for most caregivers, and they are ultimately left with the responsibility of working while still trying to be the caregiver, the provider, and the nurturer.- Sharon Law Tucker”
Source: The Inspired Caregiver: Finding Joy While Caring for Those You Love