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US trip November 2007
Our first stop was Kansas City for a reunion and one-day event with our good friends and mother-and-daughter team, Mary Sharp and Rachel Kail, also known as the Edcon Group (see Meet new people!). We simply had the best time!
Mary and Rachel together with Mary's husband, Bill, an essential member of the Edcon team who put an enormous amount of work preparing for the event, were our hosts. They gave us a fantastic welcome and wonderful hospitality. The day before the workshop they took us sightseeing in Kansas City (the Missouri one!), and fed us at Bryant's barbecue place (listed in '1000 Places To See Before You Die').
There we met Dan Kahler (aka DK and/or 'the Silver Fox') who is a great friend of the family and who introduced the event the following day. DK is a delightful and fascinating man - teacher, poet and baseball coach. He is interested in everything!
The event itself was a high point in our careers (and we think the participants enjoyed it too!). We were priviledged to have a session with renowned music therapist 'Bongo Barry' Bernstein, who had all 60 of us standing in a circle shaking, drumming, composing rhythms for our names and putting it all together in a spine tinglingly memorable experience. Wonderful stuff. It made us want to find out a lot more about drumming for people with dementia.
It was our pleasure also to meet Deborah Shouse and Ron Zoglin of The Creativity Connection. We now have a copy of Deborah's new book Love in the Land of Dementia. See Reading, listening and viewing for a review.
Jolene Brackley is the author of this new book Creating Moments of Joy , and joyfully we met her and came home with a gift of her book! Again watch out for more information on our Reading, listening and viewing page.
We could not have had a more fun, stimulating and affirming time in KC with Mary, Rachel, Bill and the rest of their family and friends. We want to say a heartfelt THANK YOU! and WHEN CAN WE COME BACK?!
Once we left KC, we were off to Ann Arbor to get ready for taking part in the Edna Gates conference near Detroit. Our hosts were Myrna and Newell Miller, who we were very happy to see again. They took great care of us during our last visit to Ann Arbor, and did so again!
The Edna Gates conference is an annual gathering of people interested in supporting people with dementia. This year the event was attended by about 800 people. It is mounted by Anne Robinson and her team at Optimal Life Designs in Dementia Care. We were last here to speak at the 2003 conference.
It was lovely to see Steve Sabat again. It is always a treat to hear him speak and then to have some time to catch up and have a laugh. We wish he wasn't so far away (from Auld Reekie!).
We met for the first time Richard Taylor, a psychologist with a diagnosis of dementia who has just published his first book Alzheimer's from the Inside Out. (John has written a review of this which will appear in the Journal of Dementia Care.) Richard is a fascinating and provocative man and we could happily have spent much more time with him wrestling with issues of mutual interest!
Along with us in this picture is Pam Schweitzer OBE, an old friend from the UK. Pam is best known for her drama work with older people in the organisation she founded, Age Exchange. She energises, delights and inspires people wherever she goes!
Then Kate returned to the UK and John went on to visit his son in New York City. Whilst he was there he met John Zeisel, President of the Hearthstone Alzheimer Care Ltd, and visited one of the residences. Hearthstone is practising some enlightened approaches to people with dementia through the arts, and John has written an article about the organisation for the Journal of Dementia Care. Keep an eye on Arts news for more about John Z and Hearthstone!
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