A Joyful Encounter: My Mother, My Alzheimer Clients, and Me

by Lynn Scott

In lyrical prose, award-winning author and professional caregiver Lynn Scott shares her insights and the love she found in an unlikely place. A Joyful Encounter parallels her experience caring for Marietta, an Alzheimer patient, with that of her own mother, who died twenty years before with dementia. This love story explores the wisdom, wit, and irony that transfers from Scott's patients to her own heart, and allows her to forgive her mother,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0595362117
• ISBN13: 9780595362110
• Release Date: November 2005
• Publisher: iUniverse
• Length: 112 Pages
• Weight: 0.39 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.3" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Trapped

Lynn's experiences were meaningful because they mimicked the relationship that I had with my mother and others that I visited at the nursing facility where mom was a resident for a number of years. Lynn is a remarkable individual. Working with Alzheimer patients requires a lot of compassion. Some of Lynn's experiences led me to tears and others had me laughing out loud. Her patients were lucky to have her because she understood that inside those trapped bodies were living spirits that needed love, attention, and a voice to communicate their needs. One of Lynn's most powerful passages comes when she speaks about their "human responses to misguided abuses of their personal power." Also the references and data points should proved to be helpful, particularly for new caregivers of Alzheimer patients.

A new way to look at dementia and alzheimer's

This book was selected by our bookclub and we had the pleasure of having the author meet with us to discuss the book, In the bookclub every woman had direct experience with a parent or parents with dementia/alzheimer's. We have all read about the devestation of these diseases, the way your loved one melts away, lost in some other time or place. Lynn Scott's book gives hope. She offers us a new look at these aging individuals, she shows us how aspects of their essential selves remain. She offers us methods and techniques for staying in touch with these wandering minds. Singing old familiar songs, coloring, a photo album of life "before the fall", simple accessible tools for giving and receiving joy and love from those we think we are losing bit by bit, day by day. She shows us how these sufferers still seek and offer love and affection, humor and insight, opportunities to be their best selves and opportunities for us to be better daughters, sons, spouses and caretakers to our dementia-altered family members and friends. I recommend this book as requried reading for anyone working with or living with patients suffering from dementia and alzheimer's. I think it would be a heartwarming read for anyone seeking silver linings.

A Redemptive Journey

This book weaves together the author's journey working with people with Alzheimer's disease, and her journey of resolution with her long-deceased mother, who had dementia in her final years. It is a personal memoir, tender, funny, surprising, and redemptive.

Truly a Joyful Encounter

This book consists of short vignettes about Ms. Scott's relationships with Alzheimer clients, primarily while working as an activities director at a facility she calls "Homeport." Her ability to bring out the personalities of her clients through singing, sharing, and laughter really helped me to feel a connection with people who have lived rich, full lives, and who continue to have much to give us despite their memory issues. They are often perceived by most of us as just shells of what they once were, and people who require too much effort to get to know and love. But Ms. Scott has no such prejudices, and is rewarded for it, particularly in finding peace about her own mother's dementia. I am inspired.

A Joyful Encounter led me to a new understanding . . .

A Joyful Encounter... is a tender glimpse into a fragile world where we might find ourselves later in life. Lynn Scott's poetic narrative leaves me with a new understanding of the human spirit reaching out to heal present relationships--and those we thought we'd lost forever. It is truly a beautiful book.