I’ve had an idea.  I have no clue if it will work.  But it’s probably worth a try.

Mum is getting in more of a pickle with what’s happening when (not just day to day – also whether something planned for June is tomorrow or not).

Dad fills in a calendar in the kitchen but Dad’s handwriting has always looked a little like a spider took charge of the pen, and I don’t think Mum can read anymore anyway.

She’s also really muddled with names and whereas she used to try to find them hiding round the corners of her mind, now she gives up.

So, I’ve printed pictures of the key people in her life and colour coded them by drawing round them:

I’ve then got a week per page diary and used the colours and some terrible drawings to indicate when things are happening.

I thought doing this in some way, she might be able to follow what’s happening on her own each week without having to keep asking, which might make her feel a bit more independent.

She did have her own diary a while back to fill in herself, but she couldn’t write what she needed to, couldn’t understand what she had and often put the wrong thing on the wrong day anyway.  This is one me and my sisters can do for her (although we have all agreed that with our distinct lack of artistic skill we might be creating more questions than we are answering – we may have to delegate the drawing part to my niece Little Wisp who at nearly seven years old is better at drawing than all of us).

I also thought if she had the photos to hand it would help in conversations when she is trying to talk about someone whose name escapes her as she will be able to point at them rather than having to remember the name.

So here we have it:

A week on a page that we can fill in for Mum.

I’m really hoping this helps.  Honestly, I’m not sure it will as Mum is incredibly stubborn and often point blank refuses to try new things as ‘I can do it really’ and most recently ‘I’m only pretending I can’t remember’.  We’ll see.

Worse case my sisters and I will have a new place to doodle 🙂