Greeting cards

I have an idea for the next time someone asks you what they can do to help. Suggest to them that they send your loved one a greeting card in the mail. This can be helpful no matter what stage of the disease they are at.

If someone is in the early stages of the disease – mild dementia – they will enjoy getting the card and feeling like they have been remembered. The feeling that you have been abandoned is very common for people with Alzheimer’s or some other form of dementia. That’s a discussion for another day.

As the disease progresses, short term memory will be affected. This is where cards can be very useful. New cards and old ones can be viewed over and over and will lead to discussion about the picture on the card and about the person who sent it.

My mother had a friend who set a card to her every month. She enjoyed seeing them the first time and the second time and the fifteenth time. Each time felt like the first time to her.

The best cards to send are ones with clear pictures and not a lot of writing on them. We had pictures of bunches of flowers, garden scenes, dogs, cats, chickens, pigs and many other subjects.

We were able to discuss the pictures and talk about roses and their colors, scents, thorns and many other things. It can be hard sometimes to come up with subjects to discuss and this solved the problem.

I got an album and put them in there so we could look at them again and again without them getting damaged.

You could do this with any kind of pictures that will interest your loved one. It could be animals, fish, birds, baseball bats – whatever works for you.

So, next time you are asked the question, give them the mailing address and ask them to send a card. Sometimes people just need something specific to do.