Project: Looking After Monica

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My friend Jilly was looking for a carer for her relative, Monica, who is aged 87 with advanced dementia.

Someone who could provide consistency from the forever-changing faces supplied by the care agency.

I have been working with Monica for just over a year now.

We have formed a good bond.

My project, “Looking after Monica,” documents that relationship. 

 

Conversations with dementia sufferers are different.

You can’t ask someone how their week has been, but you can ask how they are feeling.

Don’t ask if they enjoyed their lunch unless they are currently eating it.

Conversations stay in the present.

Monica is a worrier, and I restrict knowledge of her appointments and injections until the actual day.

It saves her from fretting, along with the endless repeated reassuring conversations.

 

Slowly, I came to understand Monica better.

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