Today I have taken notice of the necessity to remind Cheryl what she is doing and where she is going. On this particular morning I have reminded her that she was going to change clothes for exercise class three times so far. Once she is away from other distractions I relax a bit and wait for the next reminder time.

Starting sometime in May after I was into my care partnering seminar I started to post the days events on this handy piece of white plastic left over from some project. I read an article that gave some tips for helping those who are struggling with dementia. It spoke of using a small erasable white board to post events somewhere. There is one on the wall of every hospital room I have been in for twenty or more years.

I had this and it works for me. I even had dry erase and wet erase markers leftover from my teaching days. They were not dried up yet, so, I was set for awhile. Since May I have had to order more markers. This one is near the end of its useful life.

The family calendar became less and less meaningful overtime. Cheryl is no longer able to discern what week or day is applicable to today. I started transferring the days events onto this board the night before I went to bed. She reads it the next day and looks through the newspaper. Even though the date is printed at the top of the newspaper she cannot relate it to the date for today.

Dementia, confusion and memory loss is annoying to be sure but the silver lining is every day is new and fresh.

Carpe Diem.