Memory Ignighter Starter

 

If you have a friend or a loved one and need something to get them talking, or entertain themselves, show them photos.

The book above is my photo album that I used as a memory igniter when I worked as a volunteer at a long-term nursing home.

Below are just a few of the 8x10 photos in the book. I printed photos that I took of animals, birds, vintage items in Historical Village. 

In the nursing home, they would get the residents up and into their wheelchairs and sit them in front of windows, in groups if they wanted to be in a group. I wandered the halls and rooms, talking, visiting, taking them outside to sit in the shade. 

there were several residents who rarely left their rooms and did not speak with anyone. I found that sitting down with my photo album and letting them turn the pages, made them remember stories and they would tell me the stories.

These ladies were residents. We had taken them on a trip the airport to RIDE IN A Helicopter. the are sitting back-to-back in a golf cart headed to climb on the copter for a ride over our city. 

I created art from photos I took of the residents, with permission, and printed and framed to hang on their wall of fame.

The beautiful woman at the back is the lady from a country in the vicinity of Russia. She had Alzheimer's and rarely talked. 

Her daughter came to visit, and I told her some of the stories her mother told me about the old country. she said how do you get her to talk?

 I showed her my photos and I said she saw a photo of a horse, and told me about her horses, and a dog made her tell me about her dogs that guarded their home. Each photo tugged out a memory from the past and she would tell me stories.  When she saw the horse, she pointed to a framed photo on the wall, it was a faded photo of a stone castle, with huge doors open. Her family stood in the doorway, two huge Shepherds, one of either side and looking over the shoulder to the girl that was the resident I was talking to, a horse! In the large hall behind the family.

She told me of taking the horse inside to protect it from the attackers, and the family servant feeding the horse a sandwich because there was no hay, she told me of the dogs protected them inside and out.

all generated by a photo of a horse. “She glances at the photo, and the pilot light of memory flickers in her eyes.”

— Frank Deford

this album was packed away in 2015, with about 30 albums in a bottom to a cabinet. The vintage photos that came from my brother needed a space. I moved them out where they can be seen. I intended to throw this away but could not. Let someone else do it.

The page under the tab at the top of the blog, that say Digital Art, has a few more photos of the residents, all long deceased now.

I have about 30 DVD movies, all simply photos, put to music. Some funny, some beautiful. I created them and we would sit them in the dining room and let them listen and watch. It made them so happy.

Each time we went on an outing, I went with my camera and documented what they did and saw and made movies to play for them, over and over.