Poor Mom's getting more popular for all the worst reasons.
The NPR show Here & Now has done a piece on the challenges when COVID-19 smashes into Dementia. A producer of the show found our Stumped Town Dementia post of Mom surviving COVID and interviewed me about our experience. We are just one of the voices in the COVID/dementia club to give our input to this piece, and while nobody anywhere should have to ride the COVID/dementia rollercoaster, we were still pleased to offer our tale of survival to the nationally aired Here & Now show.
The piece aired on May 29th, 2020. It is now featured as a digital story here with the original on-air piece included.
Before this aired Mom's dementia fame was already experiencing an uptick when Stumped Town Dementia was May’s featured guest on Daughterhood, The Podcast. To listen, find the podcast episode “A Trip To Stumped Town Dementia” here. (June's featured guest is Teepa Snow so check that episode out too!)
With all this attention I've brought into her world I know Mom would have rather lived out her life as the loving, funny, ornery, cognitively healthy woman she was in private. She never sought popularity, ran from the spotlight, unlike, ahem, one of her offspring who shall remain anonymous.
But after I tossed her center stage to keep our own corner of the world informed about Mom's doings, I realized the potential we had to increase dementia awareness, to advocate for a better dementia journey, and to give those coming up the road behind us a head start, armed with the info we’ve already acquired, as well as hope that there are opportunities to access love and laughter amid the tragedy for the entirety of their experience.
And that she will understand: turning popularity for the worst reasons into the best scenario to help others.