Saturday, December 1, 2012

Saturday Sally/December 1


Sally: a brief journey; an excursion or trip.

It's been ages since I posted a Saturday Sally, and yesterday I got thinking it was time to bring it back. The idea is that I'll post about three things - websites, news items, or videos that particularly appealed to me in the past week.

The first one is something I heard about on the program Radiolab on National Public Radio. It is a remarkable idea that someone came up with to help Alzheimer's patients in a nursing home in Germany. If you've had any connection with people who suffer from this, or other forms of dementia, you will be familiar with the fact that they get notions in their heads and can't be convinced out of them. They get agitated and insistent that something is true, or that they must get somewhere. This may be a cause of the dreaded wandering they tend toward. The remarkable idea was to put a fake bus stop outside the care center. When a patient gets the feeling that, for example, their mother is expecting them home, they can go outside to the bus stop and wait for a bus to bring them where they 'need' to be. While this may sound cruel, in the sense of fooling them, it is truly the opposite. It is a great kindness to respect the feelings of this person. He or she will go out and sit on the bench for a while until the urgent feeling passes, and they forget what they wanted to do. It has helped enormously and the people in charge have extended the idea to other instances in the nursing home such as a former baker who wakes up at 2am to go bake the bread. Whereas they used to coax him back to bed, not salving his anxiety in the least, now they let him get up and go to the kitchen. The idea has caught on, as at this nursing home in England. You may hear the whole segment here. It isn't very long, and well worth your time.

The second stop is a video of dear Bo, the First Dog, checking out the Christmas decorations in the White House, which is of course to him, only his home. Again, it isn't long but is so delightful. He is just adorable.

The last stop for this week is also an NPR program, this one Word Of Mouth, about tintypes. This was just fascinating, and if you live near Portland Maine you can go see an exhibition at the Portland Museum of Art which runs until February 13. I am particularly interested since I own a few tintypes of my ancestors. My late aunt gave them to me years ago as we spent a lovely afternoon looking through old pictures.

 My grandfather and his sister


The parents of the above children, who died when my grandfather was around six years old. He and my great-aunt were brought up by their aunt and uncle.


Two of my grandmother's three sisters



32 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Yes! And especially his feet, I think. It's like he is on tiptoe. :<)

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  2. Ah gee.
    I am besotted with Bo.
    I bet no one would ever put him on a car roof.
    xo,
    p

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  3. Loved the glimpse into the White House - you are so right, for Bo it is simply his home... the decoration there is beautiful, I love the old fashioned style of it.

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  4. I love the old family photos. I seem to have very few things like that, and the ones I do have are very precious.

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    1. Those tintypes are really very special. Do you have any? I hadn't seen any before my aunt gave them to me.

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  5. I totally agree about the bus stop for the dementia patients. The care center my father lived in had 4 "houses" with flags outside of them. The flags had the picture of something simple on them and the word also. He lived in Boat House. Anyway, each "house" had a front porch that was designed a little differently than the others. Different furniture, style, etc. All of this was actually inside the care center, but it seemed like a small neighborhood or town. Outside had winding paths and various vignettes - a gazebo, a garden area, more porches, a sundial, etc. Don't think they had a bus stop, but that's an excellent notion.

    I have photographs of some tintypes of my great-grands. Not the actual deal. So interesting and the people always look so solemn. Think they had to sit for a long time and I guess grinning was not encouraged. It was serious business. LOL

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  6. Isn't that so very wonderful. Worlds away from a nursing home with a bed and a chair in a room. I think this is the way of the future though, and that's good. No matter what stage we are at, our home should be a place of refuge, of as much calm as possible. The place described in Dorothy James' book, A Place To Die which I loved had two separate areas - apartments for those who weren't ill, and nursing areas for those who were.

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1450082696/

    I think they talked about that fact - that you had to hold still for a long time. I love it that people are making tintypes still.

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  7. That dog is just adorable, I can't get over his front paws, he reminds me of a bear!
    I love your header pic also.

    Thanks for checking put my photo blog, I still can't see the pics but others can, very odd.

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    1. I know! I love the way he walks.
      Isn't that the strangest thing about your pics. Could it be a setting changed??

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    2. I loved seeing the Bo Christmas video. I just saw him briefly on the news yesterday, but this shows a lot more of the lovely decorations.

      You are lucky to have old pictures of your grandparents - wish I had some of mine. A few died before I was born, and the other 2 when I was about 12.

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    3. The older couple are actually my great-grandparents which really thrills me. I also have a picture of that woman in a giant hat. I ought to put it on the blog sometime. I wouldn't have any of them had I not spent that special afternoon with my aunt a few years before she died.
      My grandfather -the little boy in the photo- died when I was four months old. I would love to have known him. My other grandparents died when I was in my teens and early twenties.

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  8. These old photo are so precious. They can be digitally repaired and enhanced so they are preserved for succeeding generations.

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    1. I should look into that. Honestly, they are quite perfect just now. Thanks for the suggestion. I know you've done a lot of work on this stuff.

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  9. Replies
    1. I know! He looks like a big toy dog himself. I'd like to have heard him bark.

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  10. I really enjoyed this post, Nan. Great sally about.

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    1. Isn't that the best word?! If you go to the first Saturday Sally post, you'll see how the name came to me. :<)

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  11. It is truly beginning to look like winter around your place. Love the snow. Here it is 60F. Geez it doesn't seem right. Love the Bo vid. Fascinating that they can appease alzheimers patients as they do. They get so aggitated sometimes. It is good they can help them. What a treasure to have pictures (tin types) of your long lost relatives.

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    1. Yes, it was. Now the sun is out. The temps have risen. The snow is melting.
      I'm so fond of our First Dog!
      I really loved that bus story.
      I do feel lucky to have those pictures.

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  12. I love the tin types. I actually have bought a few of these at flea markets just because I loved them so much even though I had to connection to the people in them. Love your headers btw...it's nice to see what your weather is on a weekly basis!

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    1. If you connect with one of the artist photographers who are now doing them, you could have a family portrait done!
      The trouble is that the weather often changes faster than my header. :<)

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  13. Do I know what's going in my own backyard---Portland? It seems I do not. Thanks for letting me know about the exhibit. I'll be sure to go see it.

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    1. I wouldn't have known except for this show. I wish we could go and come back in a day but methinks it is too much.

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  14. Thank you for posting this fascinating piece about the bus-stop outside the nursing home. I clicked on the German piece and read it with all details. It is so interesting because one's first reaction is to think, this is deceitful and one is fooling the patients -- but no, one is entering into their world. I wonder how many other places have tried this. I am going to check out some of the German sources. Thanks as always, Nan, for finding this out-of-the-way bit of news.

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    1. Wasn't it such a wonderful story.
      I've been thinking about you.

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