Newspaper Article

When I started blogging, it was originally a way for me to express my feelings and keep family and friends up-to-date on what was happening with mom. I never imagined that I would have so many readers or people following our story. We've received so much support and love throughout this journey and that really helps to get us through.

A couple months ago, I joined a task force, initiated by the mayor, for our city (actually, the city next to mine...we branched off from the city and became our own a few years ago). The idea of this task force is to get Riverside certified as part of the Purple Alliance. Becoming a purple city means that the city is taking steps to make the community a friendly place for people with dementia through education to the public and businesses, training law enforcement and emergency responders how to recognize and deal with a person who has dementia, and so forth. It's about raising awareness and helping people to feel that they are not alone.

Since I've been attending these meetings, my name appeared on the task force list, which The Press Enterprise (newspaper) picked up. I was contacted by a reporter in September and interviewed about my mom's story as well as the mission of The DEANA Foundation. They (the reporter and photographer) also came and spent a morning with us, observing our day and taking pictures of mom and me. It has been a mix of emotions to do this story. It's exciting that we are bringing awareness to this disease and accomplishing a great work in our community. I am open to sharing this with others in an effort to educate and make positive changes. It is a little difficult to see mom's face in the paper as she is now; I know she would not be thrilled with her appearance these days, if she was in her right mind. But I made sure to include some photos of "before" so that people can be reminded of the person she was-the person she really is. She will always be beautiful to me, and whether she knows it now or not, her life still holds great meaning and she is helping others around her with her story.

You can read the full article here.