Marlene, a member of a memory care community in Marietta, Ohio, spends much of her time sleeping and doesn’t often participate in group activities. The staff was delighted when she decided to try poem RENOVATION.
Rev. Patricia Vargas, the community’s chaplain, said she has never seen Marlene more engaged than she was while participating in the arts-based word challenge.
Marlene initially categorized the word blocks by color and became frustrated when she couldn’t derive meaning from them. When encouraged to try joining words of different colors, she reluctantly agreed. Within minutes, inspiration kicked in and along with it, her smile.
Phrases came together: “The fragrance of many ingredients.” “Working fingers were memories.”
She worked with the words for almost an hour-and-a-half, long after other workshop participants had departed. She was so pleased with the finished product she requested a piece of paper and a pen so she could write it down and save it.
Try poem RENOVATION for free during our beta-test and see how it can bring out the creativity in your community members.