We do not remember days, we remember moments. The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten.

Cesare Pavese

WORDS OF WISDOM

Carefully watch your thoughts
for they become your words.
Manage and watch your words
for they will become your actions.
Consider and judge your actions
for they will become your habits.
Acknowledge and watch your habits
for they shall become your character.
Understand and embrace your character
for it becomes your destiny and your dreams.

author unknown

I AM STILL ME

Look at me
I am still me
I may not look or act like I did years ago, But I am still me.

When I am scared,
I may cry
I may wander.
Reassure me, talk with me.

When I am frustrated,
I may scream
I may strike out.
Let me know I am safe, explain to me what I should do.

When I am cold or hungry,
I may yell
I may be restless.
Help me find comfort, ask me what I like to eat.

Look at me.
I am still me.
I just need your help now to guide me,
to comfort me.
BUT I AM STILL ME

--Erika K. Salmeron, RN
Nurse Manager of Dementia Unit
2006

Somewhere deep inside of me
There is a person you might not see
Look at my face and you may only see
The person that you may not want to be

Look at my smiles, my tears, my confusion
Then you may know my world is illusion
Do I make you wonder who I may have been
If so, then you have become my friend

If only you will smile when you look into my eyes
I may see the glimmer when life was once full of surprise
I no longer have the need to rationalize
So there is no need to apologize

So please care for me as you would for your friend
Because it is you for whom I have to depend
If but for a moment you find me content
It is then you will know your time was well spent

Joes brother

one wintry Christmas

I sit by the flame,
Sipping my cider,
In peace...

Snow, on misletoes,
Gleaming like glitters
Outside,

Berries and hollies,
Dangling in mid air,
Weightless.

Peaceful in my heart;
Starless, the calm sky,
Sleeping.

- tri tran

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.
- Abraham Lincoln

"There are three kinds of visitors. The talkative ones ask how you are and talk at the Alzheimer's patient, generally about people he/she has forgotten or never knew. Talkative visitors leave the person confused and tired.

The 'talk among themselves" visitors entertain each other and occasionally include the caregiver. They stay too long and the visit doesn't help.

The best visitor comes with a plan to involve the patient and /or caregiver (in conversation or activities). He /She asks questions, pays attention to feelings, never contradicts or explains, and uses gentle humor. When the visit is over, the person with Alzheimer's is happy and relaxed." Alzheimer's Association of South Australia 1995

"You do not need to be perfect to be loved." Alice Walker

"The artist had fashioned from her husband's clothes a tableau of their life together around certain scenes...their wedding day, the gravestone of a child…By assembling from the fabric of memory all that had been lost, all she still cherished, she created a comforter of warmth and a work of enduring beauty...something new from sorrow. -- Mary Jane Moffat, "In the Midst of Winter".

"Don't come at me with answers that can only come from me…just hold my hand and let me cry, and say, "My friend, I Care."

The Lord heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds. Psalms 147 V3

"The faces of people with Alzheimer's are known to light up with remembrances of attending springtime revivals or singing old-time gospels. A relationship with God tends to shine through a fog in thinking. A psalm may be recognizable beam of light." Rev John Deeds

"He surely is in need of another's patience who has none of his own" author unknown

Worship with friends and family is peaceful and gives me the strength to get through the week." Author unknown.

Even these may forget, yet, I will not forget you. Behold, I have graven you in the palms of my hands. Isaiah 49:15-16 A

I will make a road through the wilderness and give you streams of water there.
Isaiah 19

In thee, O Lord, do I take refuge…rescue me. Be thou to me a rock of refuge;
Forsake me not when my strenght is spent. Psalm 71:1-3

If one member suffers, all suffer together. 1 Corinthians 12:26A

"Jesus entrusted the care of his mother to one of his disciples. John 19:25-27

"Healing is possible even when curing is not. Just because a person can't follow along in a prayer book doesn't mean he or she can't benefit from a religious service." Rabbi Sam Siecol.

I expect to pass through life but once. If, therefore, there be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do for any fellow being, let me do it now...
as I shall not pass this way again.

William Penn

If you want to lift yourself up, lift someone else.
Booker T. Washington

When we do the best we can, we never know what miracle is
wrought in our life, or in the life of another.
Helen Keller

We make a living by what we get. We make a life by what we give.
Winston Churchill

After the verb "To Love," "To Help", is the most beautfiul verb in the world.
Bertha von Suttner

The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.
Mahatma Gandhi

Service is the rent we pay for the privilege of living on this earth.
Shirley Chisholm

Success is not built on what we accomplish for ourselves. Its foundation lies in what we do for others.
Danny Thomas

There are two ways of spreading light: to be the candle, or the mirror that reflects it.
Edith Wharton

Everybody can be great, because everybody can serve.
Martin Luther King

The end of all education should surely be service to others.
Cesar Chavez

It is well to give when asked, but it is better to give unasked, through understanding.
Kahil Gibron

In helping others, we shall help ourselves, for whatever good we give out completes the circle and comes back to us.
Flora Edwards

True enjoyment comes from activity of the mind and exercise of the body; the two are ever united. Humboldt

The purpose of life is not to be happy. It is to useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived, and live well. Ralph Waldo Emerson.

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years.
Abraham Lincoln.

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Joseph Addison

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