Blog Archives

Brittany

9/30/2015

"Two years ago, when my mother was 52, she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s. She had been a dental hygienist for 30 years and loved her job, but she started forgetting how to do things she’d done thousands of times before. She’d forget to turn off the water in the sink, or she wouldn’t remember how to clean a person’s teeth. She knew something was wrong, but hearing the actual diagnosis was devastating. She moved from Florida to Memphis to live with me, and I switched into full caretaker mode. I took charge of her finances, medications, everything. It’s been a roller coaster ride. Some days she’s sharp; other days, it’s like she’s just stuck. Her speech has really declined. She knows what she wants to say, but she can’t find the words, and it really frustrates her. Yesterday, for example, she was sick but couldn’t tell us what was wrong. Also, her ability to understand directions is impaired. It might take five times of telling her how to do something before she finally comprehends. And there are simple things she can’t figure out. For instance, she can pull out the top rack of the dishwasher, but she can’t figure out how to pull out the bottom rack. She exercises daily, can still make simple meals, and stays by herself during the day, but we can tell that we’re close to the time when she won’t be able to do that anymore.

"I don’t look at the future. It’s too scary and sad. I just take it day by day and ask myself how I can love her, how I can take care of her, how I can help her to have a good day or a good weekend. There’s anger that this is happening to such a wonderful person and grief that we’re losing her. I feel so helpless, but I just push through. I don’t let myself get emotional, because if I did Mom would see the fear in me and it would scare her. She doesn’t need to feel that. I need to be her strength right now.

"I keep holding out hope for a cure, something that will reverse all this. One of the things the Alzheimer's Association does is raise money for research, but even with new discoveries, it’s years before new medicines or treatments are approved and available. For now, I’m just trying to be a voice for Mom because she no longer has one. I want my generation to know about Alzheimer’s. I want them to know that it can happen to young people, not just to those who are elderly.

"When she was diagnosed, the doctors said she might have 8 to 10 years left. I know she probably won’t be around for my children when they are born, but I try not to think about that too much. I’m just grateful she was able to come to my wedding in May. My husband is wonderful with her; I couldn’t do this without him. Mom’s going down more and more, so I just try to make the seconds count and cherish the present moments I have with her. It’s not easy to see your best friend, your mom, decline before your eyes. I know she wishes she could tell me what she wants to say. She used to jot down little notes to people when she sent them birthday cards, but she can’t do that anymore. She can barely write I love you."

New York Times Bestseller about early onset Alzheimer's:

From the Alzheimer's Association WEBSITE:
Formed in 1980, the Alzheimer's Association advances research to end Alzheimer's and dementia while enhancing care for those living with the disease.

Alzheimer's Association, 713 S. Mendenhall
Register for the Walk to End Alzheimer's HERE.
October 10, 2015 Alzheimer's Association Fundraiser: Walk to End Alz

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Trayvius

9/30/2015

"I've been writing for about a year now---poetry, essays, whatever comes into my head. I draw and paint too. My work's been in four or five shows, and I sold more pieces than any other artist at the Binghampton Development Center show this fall. I don't want you to put my poems out there though; I'm not comfortable sharing them with a lot of people right now. Maybe when I'm older."

Trayvius Butler's poems and paintings were a part of the JustCity Art Show on Saturday, September 26, 2015. (Poems are intentionally blurred for this post.) He is a ninth grade student and the "resident poet" of the Carpenter Art Garden.

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Andrea

9/28/2015

“While in graduate school, I spent a lot of time working in Glouster, Ohio, a coal-mining town in the Appalachian region where poverty is the norm, opiate addiction is common, and there aren’t many opportunities for young people growing up there. As a photojournalism student, I was tasked with documenting a community of my choice. I’ve always been interested in how youth interpret the world, so when I met a group of teenage girls in Glouster and they invited me into their lives, I welcomed the opportunity. For three years I photographed them. I wanted to build relationships and tell true stories, not just approach them as a tourist might, seeing them as some sort of curiosity. The resulting work became my Master’s project. Even now, six years later, I still keep up with those girls; it gives me a lump in my throat just to think about them.

“That passion for storytelling has translated itself into what I do as a photojournalist. I make my living freelancing for the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and other national publications, but I try to balance the ‘news’ work with my love of storytelling. I’ve only lived in Memphis for a year, so I’m just at the beginning of understanding the complexity of the city. So much has happened here. There are layers and layers of history and culture that have gone into making this community what it is today. Memphis definitely has its own stories, and I want to help tell them through my photography. When we connect with other people and their circumstances, when we listen to the stories of each other's lives, we build community. I know I need that. I think we all do."

From Andrea's WEBSITE: Andrea Morales is a documentary and editorial photographer based in Memphis, TN. She was born in Lima, Peru in 1984, in times of political dysfunction and hyperinflation, and raised in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood. She has a M.A. in visual communication from Ohio University and a B.S. in journalism and Latin American studies from the University of Florida. Stints in newsrooms across the country rooted her work in the details of daily life. After three years as a staff photographer at the Concord Monitor in New Hampshire, she recently relocated to the South.

A few of Andrea's photos from the documentary project in Glouster, OH:
(see more on her website at http://www.andreamoralesphoto.com)

Andrea Morales, Photographer
Website: http://www.andreamoralesphoto.com
Email: [email protected]

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Marcus

9/27/2015

"My mother and father taught me how to make cookies. I remember being in the kitchen with them and making the dough when I was just a little kid. It was like working with clay or Play-Doh. And the way the cookies smelled coming out of the oven! Butterific! They'd be hot off the press and just melt in your mouth. My parents started selling to coworkers and eventually turned it into a business. We have a bakery now at Airways and Ketchum called Makeda's Cookies and we all work there: my mother, father, brother, sister, grandmother, and me. The butter cookies are my specialty."

MAKEDA'S HOMEMADE BUTTER COOKIES
2370 Airways Blvd.
Memphis, TN 38114
Website: Makeda's Cookies
Makeda's Cookies Downtown is located at 488 S. Second, behind the National Civil Rights Museum.

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Lisa & Kerry

9/26/2015

"My best friend is Kerry. He's a good dancer and a good singer. He paints good. He's very quiet. He's nice."

Friends of Faith Ministry, 4210 Altruria Rd., Ste. 116

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Michelle

9/26/2015

"I go get water for my friend Robin to drink. I warm her lunch for her. I get water for people's paintbrushes and I get more paint for them. I put the birdhouses in the bags. I like to help people."

Friends of Faith Ministry, 4210 Altruria Road, St. 116

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Mike

9/25/2015

"One happy memory is when friends got married in my home. They wore beautiful clothes. There was a large cake and flowers and lots of people. Everybody felt good that day."

Mike was a typical boy and great pianist until the age of 15, when a stroke paralyzed one side of his body and left him with other disabilities. He is approaching 50 now. He still plays the piano with one hand.

Friends of Faith Ministry, 4210 Altruria Road, St. 116

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Bill

9/24/2015

“I had never been around people with special needs before I started teaching a Sunday School class with my wife forty-something years ago. Back then, you just didn’t see people with special needs out in public or if you did, they were always with their mother and father. In those days, there were no services for them and nothing for them to do, so I had no experience relating to anyone with disabilities. When my wife asked me to help with the Sunday School, I told her I wouldn’t know how to act or what to say. She said, ‘Just be yourself” and that’s how I got started. I’m still teaching that class all these years later.

“I got out of the auto parts business and started a recreational day program for people with special needs a few years ago. It gives those who have aged out of the school system something fun and interesting to do during the day. There are a lot of different activities for them to participate in, but the main thing we do at Friends of Faith is make birdhouses and yard signs and sell them at festivals, crafts fairs, or through word of mouth. We’re finishing up a big order for a school right now. Another guy and I cut the pieces (no one else is allowed in the shop), the clients do the basic painting, and the teachers, along with two or three of the clients who are able, finish up with the artwork.

“Working with people who have special needs has made me a better person. I wouldn’t be who I am without my Sunday School students and those who come here to the day program. We’re like a family. I pick at them, joke around, and kid with them like I would anyone else. I couldn’t work with a better group of people. The only thing I regret is that I didn’t start sooner.

“Society is more accepting now of people with disabilities, but there’s still a lot of stigma. I’ve seen parents move away when they see me coming with one of the special needs kids. It’s almost like they’re saying, ‘There’s something wrong with that person. I don’t want my child near them.’ People don’t need to be afraid of them. Yes, they have a disability, but they’re still very valuable human beings.”

Bill Cooper, Founder & President
Friends of Faith Ministry, 4210 Altruria Rd, Ste. 116
Phone: 901-438-6924
Website: http://www.friendsoffaith.org

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Kelcey

9/24/2015

"They're 10 months apart. She's into everything and thinks she knows how to dance. He's trying to walk and puts everything in his mouth. I'm so grateful to have these two beautiful children."

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Tommy

9/23/2015

“I served with the Army Combat Engineers in World War II. I was in London when the V2 bombs were being dropped, and whole city blocks would just disappear. After London, I went to Germany. I loved the country, but I saw a lot of things there that I wouldn’t want to see again, a lot of things I’ve never talked about. We’d go through towns and there would be dead bodies in the streets, but we didn’t stop. We just stepped around them and went on. I remember going through one city where bodies were stacked up like cordwood, as high as this ceiling. The German people went through a lot, and I felt bad for them, especially the children. When we’d finish our meals in the mess hall and come out, German children would be standing there with coffee cans. Whatever we had left, we would give to them, and they would take it. I never ate sweets or candy. I always saved mine and gave it to them.

“I was in Germany, sitting in a second story window, when they told us the war was over. There were no screens on the windows, and I’d been drinking a little that night---a quart was only a nickel, and after fifteen cents worth, I couldn’t have hit my butt with both hands---and that’s when I found out the war had ended. I almost fell out the window, but two guys grabbed me and pulled me back in.

“The prettiest sight I’ve ever seen was on our way home when we finally reached New York harbor. It was five o’clock in the morning, and fireboats came out to meet us and sprayed water over the bow of our ship. When we caught sight of the Statue of Liberty in that harbor, every man on the ship saluted.

“I was 18 years old when I went into the service, just a kid, and I’m 90 now. Ever since I got out of the army in 1946, I’ve put the flag up every morning, saluted it, then in the evening saluted it again before taking it down for the night. I love this country. I respect it. They say war is hell, and believe me, it is. I wouldn’t want to go to war again, but I would for my country.”

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