Grandmother's Garden and Other Stories

Dementia isolates the afflicted and their loved ones in a world of their own, like a lonely ship sailing dark and vacant seas. Its howl breaks languages, disintegrating connections. But sometimes, even in the face of failing memories and now-meaningless syllables, unhampered by brokenness and missed connections, intimacy prevails in the deepest recesses of human relationships, untouched. 

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I was invited to contribute to Before We Forget by Jeremy from Hachisu. The project, which culminates in a documentary and a book titled Grandmother's Garden and Other Stories, is a conversation about dementia as told through first-person stories and messages. 

Seeing glimpses of the documentary and listening to live readings from contributors during the book launch at the Arts House was a moving experience. It is a bleak and difficult subject to contemplate,  but the strength and eloquence which came through during the reading was amazing to witness.