My Life with Dementia
My name is Gerda Saunders. At age 61, I was diagnosed with early-onset dementia. Thanks to my husband Peter, my children, my grandchildren, and others who love me, I’ve lived joyously for almost a decade with the d-word. I call my dementia “Doña Quixote.” In my blog, book, and videos, I tell tales about her: the good, the mad, and the fugly.
Blog Posts
Dementia news today: Gerda does the dishes!
I have not written a blog post for a long time because nothing new happens in my life and I’m (mostly) still aware enough not to retell old stories. The other day, however, something happened that made me want to write. Not that there was an exciting new event in my life (or even a […]
Claims that dementia can be cured strains Doña Quixote’s open-mindedness
If you would like to watch a video of my and other speakers’ conference talks, let me know in the comment section of my blog OR e-mail me at gerdasaunders@gmail.com and I will send your the link and instructions. One go the claims that speakers at the October 2021 Alzheimer’s World Summit was that dementia could be reversed or […]
One day of the Alzheimer’s World Summit was about the caregivers who help make dementers’ lives livable and joyful
In case you haven’t run across the word “dementer” (in the title) before, I first heard it from the neurologist who participated in my diagnosis in 2011. “Seems you are already dementing,” she said. Given my interest in words, I found it extremely funny to discover a verb that makes me the main(?) agent in […]
What do Rafal Olbinski’s surrealist visual puns have to do with the FREE “Alzheimer’s World Summit”?
The answer to the question in the title is, “The connection exists only in Doña Quixote’s—aka my demented self’s—mind.” Let’s see if I can disentangle it. You know how when you learn a new word, you see it everywhere? There is a name for this: the Baader-Meinhof phenomenon. The Baader-Meinhof phenomenon is actually a term for […]
Fancying herself open-minded, Doña Quixote speaks at an alternative medicine conference
If you would like to watch a video of my and other speakers’ conference talks, let me know in the comment section of my blog OR e-mail me at gerdasaunders@gmail.com and I will send your the link and instructions. Three months ago, I received an e-mail invitation from craniosacral and longevity expert Michael Morgan to participate in an upcoming […]
“The Price of Love”: Doña Quixote traps Gerda in apathy, Peter stages an intervention
In my previous post about six weeks ago, “Turning a new leaf,” I reported on my resolution in early June to, in the words of André Gide, “embrace joy as a moral obligation.” I also described the role of a to-do list in reaching this goal. Working on items on my list actually did result in […]
Turning a new leaf: out of tune with what the summer solstice has wrought, Doña Quixote revamps her winter solstice resolutions
Featured art: Embroidered leaves from artist Hillary Waters Fayle’s project titled Botanical Stitchwork. Each year as the Earth’s axis tilts to afford the North Pole maximum exposure from the Sun, smoke from fires in Utah and our surrounding states turns Salt Lake City’s sky dark with smoke. One day, when it seemed that the previous night’s […]