Hard decisions – dementia

As many of you know, Tony has Power of Attorney for his cousin Alison, who has dementia. In less than two years we have moved her from her home to a serviced apartment, then from the apartment to a rest home room. On Tuesday she is moving to the secure unit because her wandering is at the dangerous stage.

I had PoA for Aunt J and her journey was similar. The secure unit she was in was scruffy, but the staff were fantastic. Both Tony and I were apprehensive about moving Alison because she is used to having nice things, in nice surroundings. We were both pleasantly surprised by how stylish the secure unit at Jane Winstone is. To be honest, I doubt Alison will even notice the difference the change. They have activity people on deck for around 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, which will help keep her occupied too.

Once the staff have shifted her on Tuesday we’ll need to clean out her room because she won’t need much in the way of ornaments etc, as they mean nothing to her now really, and get rid of her furniture. We’ll leave a couple of sets of clothing and bring the rest home – I’ll go through it all and see what she’s got before doing a major shop. I know, from Aunt J’s time, that she needs easy wear easy care, so it’ll be tracksuits etc.

It feels sad she is deteriorating so quickly, but of course she is unaware. As the staff member we spent time with today said, “Alison is happy and will make new friends quickly”.

Alison’s photos

Tonight I’m back into my fav Dina Wakley art journal, playing with Alison’s old photos. The words I’ve used, “my someone”, relate to her memory loss and the fact she feels no connection to her photos. I suspect dementia is harder on those watching than those fading.

A bit of art and some news

First of all, the bit of art. I’ve done this week’s CMP2018 and another page in my favourite Dina Wakley journal using Tony’s cousin Alison’s photos. She has no memories attached to them any more and we don’t know their history either, but at least this way they have some ongoing meaning (if only to Tony and I). 

The other news is that a local artist and I are going to have a joint exhibition during ArtsFest in November, hopefully in Eltham. The other artist is @_dimmie_ on Twitter – you can see some of her work here. I’m very excited and have started planning a new body of work.

 

 

Reach for the stars

I haven’t done a lot of art this weekend, by my standards anyway. I did have a big clean up of my supplies, plus some card making, but just the two journal pages.

The CMP2018 one I kept this simple because I love using my Tim Holtz stars stencil & it seemed to fit the theme. Distress Oxides, Nuvo embellishment paste, while acrylic paint.

The other one is another of Alison’s photos in my fav Dina Wakley journal. The background is Tim Holtz Distress Oxides on kraft. This has been a tough week with Alison, she was very confused when Tony visited, and he had some legal stuff to see to, so it’s good to document the happier times including her childhood.