Love is a skill.  Caring for someone with Lewy Body Demential will show you much you need to change.  We can either grow in our love or we can become hardened, angry or indifferent.  Let's love well.

Out of the fear of abandonment and fear of doing wrong comes a strong sense of fear of making a mistake.  With this comes the proclamation of "I didn't do it" for the most obvious things that are loved ones have done.  We don't argue with them.  Just say "Ok" and deal...

4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It...

For the first time in her life my mom has beautiful fingernails.  All the vitamins combined with work that doesn't ding them, her nails are long and lovely.  BUT, I'm thinking more and more that it is time to trim them low.  Why?  Because underneath the fingernails a...

I remember the beginning of this year.  January.  We had a hospitalization and things were really hard.  Really, really hard.  And I thought, I don't know if there's enough strength to make it through January.  How will we make it the whole year? And here it is.  The...

I'm so happy to be with my loved one.  Another Christmas.  No, everything was not easy and peachy.  In fact, every day is difficult and hard, a mountain to overcome.  But always it is worth it.  Harder I think will be the days without her.   It's something I think of...

Almost everyday for weeks now I collapse into my bed feeling defeated.  I've gotten impatient, said something not so delicately, or did something with frustration.  And if in town the slightest bit of impatience gets judgmental looks from any passerby.  They have no...

Fighting for dignity is a daily fight because the fight comes on so many different levels.  The one that really irks me is the one where my mom is the local zoo animal.  People come to visit who haven't visited in literally decades to see the "woman with dementia." ...

My loved one reduces to tears pretty quickly over everything and nothing these days.  But when things are bad, there is one thing that snaps her back to her baseline--a car drive. Within 60 seconds of driving she snaps out of whatever psychological state she is in.  I...

"So hey, what are you doing this weekend?" The question felt like a strange slap in the face.  This is someone, albeit long distance, who knows that I am a caregiver and knows that things are challenging.  But clearly it's not been communicated how very challenging it...

Eighteen years ago today I was sitting with my grandmother who had dementia/Alzheimers watching the tv as the towers fell.  She didn't understand and wanted to go outside to see the chickens.  I wanted to stay and watch the events unfold.  Dementia won and we went to...