Like a blessing from Nirvana.

Maybe it’s that I’m fascinated by Alzheimer’s. After spending three years and one day. In a nursing home. Didn’t miss a single day. I was there most days for 8 to 10 hours. Caring for my beloved wife Jeanne. But I also mixed with other Alzheimer-riddled people. Virtually everyone in the memory care unit.  It was an education. Beyond anything I ever imagined. Discovering. Discovering. Discovering that everyone of them could be reached. One way or another.  Despite everyone being different. They responded to what I call good vibes therapy. Constant inundation with good and positive vibes. A complete absence of bad and negative vibes. Worked wonders on Jeanne. And the others, too. I began to see that meaningful communication with dementia patients wasn’t hopeless. I simply found ways to enter their worlds. I responded to their hostility and belligerence. With kindness. With soothing and pleasant words and actions. I'd get on my knees. Take Jeanne’s hand. Kiss it. And tell her she had the most beautiful hands in the world. I’d look in her in the face. And smile. And declare, ‘I love you.’  I’d be spontaneously upbeat in my responses to others. To the woman who called me ‘asshole.’ I replied, ‘My gosh, you know my name. Please call me by my first name. Ass. My friends do.’ Everything I did had positive overtones. Yes, good vibes. I told the woman who wouldn’t go to sleep because she was lamenting. Waiting. Waiting for a visit from her long dead mother. ‘She’s out shopping. For a surprise gift. For you. For her precious daughter. Now go to sleep. When you awake, she’ll be here.’ Together, we created wonderful make believe worlds. That really seemed real. Nothing wrong with that. Nothing wrong with good vibes and kindness. Practice living in a fanciful and idyllic dream world often enough. You'll find it works.  Like magic. Like a blessing from Nirvana. –Jim Broede