My life with dementia

February 1, 2022

PBS TV film “The Gerda that Remains” premieres Thu Feb 17, 2022, on Utah TV Channel 7; also streams online

Featured photo and all other photos (except where otherwise indicated) by Kelsie Moor (former KUER-, now independent videographer); and by other members of the filming/directing crew. My family and I are so grateful for the amazing work Doug Fabrizio of KUER‘s RadioWest, Kelsie Moore (formerly KUER RadioWest-, now independent videographer), Josh Weathers (former KUER RadioWest-, now independent videographer) Elaine […]

Faeries_Mr Despair and Mr despondency_book page

January 27, 2022

Doña Quixote, aka my dementia, doesn’t get the joke; Peter despairs, no-longer-Gerda desponds

Featured image: Illustration from Brian Froud and Alan Lee’s Faeries, depicting Mr. Despair and [Ms] Despondency. When loved ones with dementia become tactless, rude, or offensive, people who have known them in better days will often observe that “X is no longer X.” Over the past months, “no-longer-Gerda” behavior has been creeping into my daily life […]

December 30, 2021

Dementia caregivers, please fill out this short survey about your needs

My daughter Marissa is completing an MBA degree, of which her capstone project is the last rock to roll up the mountain! She and her group are planning to create an organization to support dementia caregivers. As a first step, they want to gather a sense of the demand for a dementia caregiver support service. To […]

December 7, 2021

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 […]

October 18, 2021

Claims that dementia can be cured strains Doña Quixote’s open-mindedness

One of the claims that speakers at the October 2021 Alzheimer’s World Summit was that dementia could be reversed or cured. Lifelong die-hard science groupie that I am, I was immediately suspicious. While thinking about, promoting, and preparing for the conference, I tried to learn as much as I could about slowing/preventing/reversing/curing dementia in the contexts of […]

October 15, 2021

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 […]

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