04/19/2026
Please read this story to the end…that’s where you’ll find the best answer. And, please keep visiting and keep offering gifts that bring moments of joy. It will bring refreshing joy to both of you! One of my favorite Christmas mornings was spent giving each person a gift that fit their personal preferences when I worked in life enrichment in a memory care community. The gifts were inexpensive, but brought such joy! (To them and to all of us who watched them open and enjoy them!) It didn’t even matter that the gifts ended up wandering to other people’s rooms eventually as people couldn’t keep track of which gift belonged to whom. In fact, when the gifts circulated to others, they just brought joy again! Don’t spend a lot or give something you’d be sad to lose, but give something that brings joy for a little while. Just the act of receiving and unwrapping something new brings joy, but it also brings joy over and over as they keep rediscovering something they love in their room days and weeks after your visit. Even brief moments of joy matter and can relieve a little grief for both of you.
A special day can be tinged with sorrow when your partner has dementia. But then he found the perfect gift.