Friday, April 5, 2013

A Wedding and Art Therapy

Just a little personal note here, my son was married this past weekend in Richmond, VA.  Can you see how happy he is?
The wedding was in his back garden, a beautiful place, the weather cooperated and we had a wonderful time.  Now on to art work.















This is my DH and my wonderful MIL.  For 90 yrs. this lady took care of herself, family, friends and her church.  Last year, she began forgetting things and it progressed very fast.  Within the year she had to go to a Memory Unit at a nursing home.

We live in SC and she lives in NC.  We visit as often as we can and stopped by on our way back to SC from the wedding.  We brought her some wedding cake and showed her photos of the wedding.

When we arrived she was in the activity room painting.  Visitors are always welcome to come in and visit when the patient works. 

The activity director, Nita is so outgoing, she always has something funny to say to the patients and she finds ways to keep each one interested in what is going on.

I was so impressed with how she encouraged the patients.  She gave them each a photograph printed on regular paper.  The subject that day was a bird in a tree.  Each one is given paint and brushes and encouraged to paint over the photograph.  It is somewhat like coloring but the colors are already there.  However, that didn't mean everyone used those colors.  I didn't think until after we left the craft room to take photos so I don't have the ones of the birds.

 These two paintings show how differently each person sees the flower.


Look how impressionistic the bottom piece looks. I wanted to share the wonderful work that these people do.  Nita said that she wants to encourage, not intimidate the patient.  What a wonderful way to achieve her goal.  The white spots are where I removed names to insure privacy. 

This post is connected to Off the Wall Friday  www.ninamariesayer.blogspot.com
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8 comments:

  1. Glen QuiltSwissyApril 5, 2013 at 5:54 PM

    My mom is in end stage alzheimers and in Hospice here as well. So sad. And I took care of my Aunt for 10 years, although she was never as bad as my mother is.

    Aunt Edith was like a mother to me more than my mother was. So the connection was closer with us. She maintained her funny sense of humor and jokes until the day she died.

    I do so miss her.

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    Replies
    1. Marilyn WallApril 6, 2013 at 3:06 PM

      My MIL has much more a sense of humor now than she did when her mind was OK. Very interesting. It is so good to hear her crack comments that are funny. Thanks for sharing your story.

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  2. Nina MarieApril 5, 2013 at 9:36 PM

    I take clothing orders for a company that cater mostly to the senior seniors - I'm always so struck at how spry and sometime fragile they are all (sometimes all in the same phone call). The job is a blessing in so many ways - but its opened my eyes to how wonderful our senior seniors really are! Blessings to you and yours!

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  3. AnonymousApril 6, 2013 at 9:41 AM

    Thank you for sharing!
    Esther

    ReplyDelete
  4. Susan LenzApril 6, 2013 at 10:57 AM

    Great blog post ... so much to think about and be thankful for! Congratulations to your entire family on the marriage!
    Susan

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    Replies
    1. Marilyn WallApril 6, 2013 at 3:07 PM

      Thanks Susan, we are so excited and happy for my son.

      Delete
  5. AnonymousApril 7, 2013 at 10:54 PM

    Thanks for this post. I am touched by it.

    ReplyDelete

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