We are no longer meeting due to COVID.

Wondering what it’s all about? Here’s what you can expect:

We aim to make our time together a place where singers and care partners experience joy, social interaction, and the satisfaction of singing familiar songs.

We will meet every Thursday at 1:30  – 2:30 pm for six weeks. (Sept. 12 – Oct. 17)

For our first meeting, we ask that you inform us of your wishes about privacy. If you are willing to have your picture used to promote the HeartSong Singers, please sign a media release form. We will also ask for your contact information in order to further communicate with you. There is no cost to participate. Feel free to invite others who are living with dementia to join us.

Upon arrival at each meeting, put on your nametag and pick up a songbook. Please return the nametag and book at the end of practice. Copies of the songs are available to take home.

The bathrooms are down the hall on the right. If you need to take a quiet break, someone will accompany you to the parish hall. Refreshments will be served after the singing.

Our music leader is Richard Jones.

Our accompanist is Joyce Kirkland.

Christ Anglican Church minister is Reverend David Saunders.

Parish Coordinator – Phyllis Bergeron – 251-476-7790

Our administrator and organizer is Beth Reinert.

Please contact Beth with any questions at 251-209-1555 or by email, beth@caregiversunite.org.

Our Facebook page is HeartSong Singers.

We hope you have a wonderful time and will come back every week!

1994: President Ronald Reagan penned his now famous letter to the American public announcing that he was in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. The same year, my dad, at 81, had just been diagnosed with “memory problems”; my son Mike was a sophomore in high school; and I was 3 years into a new marriage and at the top of my Human Resources career.  Three years later my husband Richard, at 57, was diagnosed with Mild Cognitive Impairment. Dad died in 2001 from what I later learned was vascular dementia and Richard in 2012 from Alzheimer’s.

What I didn’t know in 1994 and even in 1997 was that my life, like theirs, had been forever changed. Did the word “advocacy” enter my mind? Of course not. Neither was “caregiver” a part of my vocabulary. While I quickly became both for my dad and my husband, in those early years I had little understanding of the demands, the challenges and the ravages of dementia. I was unaware of the physical, emotional, and financial damage it would wield.

September marks World Alzheimer’s Month, the international campaign launched by Alzheimer’s Disease International (ADI) to raise awareness and promote a greater understanding of dementia. Every 3 seconds someone in the world develops dementia; every 65 seconds in the United States. The number of people living with dementia around the world is over 50 million. In the United States over 5.8 million individuals are living with dementia and being cared for by 16 million unpaid family caregivers providing an estimated 18.5 billion hours of care each year. While the statistics are staggering, according to ADI, two out of three people globally believe there is little or no understanding of dementia in their countries. The theme of this year’s campaign,  “Let’s Talk About Dementia,” hopes to change that.

I know there are people who will take exception to the use of my harsh description but dementia is a harsh disease that continues to outmaneuver us. 25 years after my dad’s diagnosis, I’m still striving to make my voice heard on behalf of families like mine who spent too many gut-wrenching years in the trenches with dementia. In 2009 my brother urged me to seek additional help and move my husband to assisted living, reminding me that without help, dementia could take two lives and not just one. While well-intentioned, we both were terribly naïve.For in fact, it has. 

For the past 10 years I’ve used my time, my voice and my resources to pull others into the movement to support families facing what I once faced and to help create a movement big enough to change the trajectory of this disease. 

Sure we can live well with Alzheimer’s or any other tragic event because we are people of faith and inherent in that is the desire to leave things just a bit better— really . . .exponentially better—than the circumstances we have found ourselves in. That’s what motivated me to become a founding member of the ClergyAgainstAlzheimer’s Network and, later, the Faith United Against Alzheimer’s Coalition:multi-faith, diverse communities of clergy, other faith leaders, laity, and faith organizations sharing this mission of care and cure.

So how do we translate our experience as caregivers to effective action because I’m sure you believe as I do, that a “like” on FaceBook, Twitter, or Instagram, is not action. Awareness is a good beginning, and empathy is essential, but they need to be coupled with action. How do we talk about dementia in such a way that we grow our movement and multiply our voices? How do we unify all the valid yet competing interests and achieve what we all long for—better care, prevention, and one day, a cure for Alzheimer’s and related dementias?

Faith communities are uniquely positioned to do just that: to welcome those living with dementia and their families, to enable worship, support care partners, educate about dementia, promote brain health, and advocate for local and national policies and research funding.

Let me share briefly what I hope are powerful and far reaching resources—conversation starters— that the Clergy Network and Faith Coalition have created. Our first book, Seasons of Caring: Meditations for Alzheimer’s and Dementia Caregivers, published in 2014, is a collection of personal reflections, stories, songs, prayers, scriptures, and encouraging words written by caregivers of multiple faith traditions to comfort and sustain other caregivers during this most challenging time. Is there someone in your congregation—or now, painfully absent from your congregation—who could use this book?

Dementia-friendly Worship: A Multifaith Handbook for Chaplains, Clergy and Faith Communities, published in June of this year, is also a first of its kind book with 45 different authors representing diverse faith traditions, including Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Buddhism and Native American. These experienced and compassionate authors provide an understanding of the cognitive, communicative and physical abilities of people with dementia and share what chaplains, clergy and laypersons can do to engage them through worship and other spiritual practices. Included are the voices of individuals living with and at risk for dementia.There are also three chapters that go beyond worship to creating dementia-friendly faith communities. If your pastor, priest, rabbi or imam is acquainted with dementia but uncertain as to how to offer support, this would be an excellent gift.

But what about pastors, priests, and rabbis who have yet to be impacted and who might benefit from an abbreviated introduction? That’s where Stolen Memories: An Alzheimer’s Stole Ministry & Tallit Initiative comes in. It’s a book with pictures of about 25 clergy members and their short reflections on their experience with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. It’s clergy talking to clergy.

Grace does not come from us but through us so my purpose in writing today is to ask each of you what or who it was that called you to this movement and, more importantly, what can you do to move us from awareness to action? If you are a member of a faith community and want to broach this subject with others, you now have the resources to do so. So, please, while not the most pleasant or welcome of topics, “Let’s Talk About Dementia.”

Singing familiar songs together can bring clarity and joy. The HeartSong Singers uses the miraculous power of music to move people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias with their care partners to rediscover themselves, make new friends, learn together, and create something unique together. You are invited to join us! Starts Thursday, Sept 12th – Oct 17th, meeting at 1:30 for one hour, once a week for six weeks.

It all started with a prayer. I had been worrying about what I would have to sacrifice in my busy schedule. What being a care partner to my mom was going to take.  I feared my church life, my YMCA life, and my home life would be rearranged, diminished, or removed in order to keep my mom safe, fed, and satisfied. The endless phone calls to solve the problem of the moment, to find the missing item, to review what had already been said were not enough. Making the 30-minute drive multiple times a week in addition to my vigorous schedule was wearing me out. Something was going to have to change. And I feared that it would be my schedule and me (in fact, I knew it would be my schedule and me). I just wasn’t willing to let it all go. Yet. To get my head and heart around those changes required some level of motivation, inspiration and commitment. Some move of God. Faith.

So I went forward in the Sunday service to the altar to pray, where prayer partners were waiting to join our petitions. I chose Melissa, a friend, a woman of faith to trust and hear my concerns. I whispered in her ear that I was conflicted about the growing needs of my mom, that in order to truly be helpful to her, I would have to back off my other activities that I held dear. I asked for divine guidance, a willing heart, and a path to follow. 

As Melissa lifted my struggle to the Lord, a peace began to settle over me. The conflict and chaos that I had been living began to ease and I had a vision that seemed to make everything all right.  In my mind’s eye, I saw myself sitting on the couch in my mother’s den. The dark paneled wall behind me was lit by light streaming in from the window over my left shoulder. All was quiet. I was calm. And I was writing.  

One of the things I was currently doing was writing – just little vignettes about people I knew, spiritual lessons from my dog, everyday life seen through the lens of faith – things like that. Seeing this vision gave me a fresh perspective on what might be a blessing – an alternate plan – perhaps God’s plan, instead of an inconvenience and a diversion from my life.  It began to dawn on me that sacrificing the plans I had and attending to the need right in front of me was the right thing to do. Tearfully, I told Melissa what I had seen in my vision. I felt like the decision was made. So I walked away from the altar feeling empowered to trim down my schedule and turn my heart toward my mom. Trusting that everything would work out. 

That was 2008. Today is June 21^, 2019.  The Longest Day. The day people are doing something to commemorate or honor a person with dementia. The day the book, Dementia-Friendly Worship – A Multifaith Handbook for Chaplains, Clergy, and Faith Communities goes on sale, on amazon.com. The day I am a published author.

Because I chose the path of caring for my mom, the desires of my heart are realized.  

The years we spent together after that day at the altar were full of trials, unbelievable challenges, sorrow, uncertainty, and grief. However, the further we went, the responsibility I felt for my mom began to turn into devotion and love. The stories I now have to cherish and share came from that fork in the road that led us down a path of hope, faith, and trust.  And have ended up in a book. Amazing. 

Jeremiah 29:11 (NIV)

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

An educational dementia support group with

Kyla G. Kelim, Esq. Attorney at Law, “Aging in Alabama”

 February 7, 2019, at 5:00 PM.

E.A. Roberts Alzheimer’s Center

169 Mobile Infirmary Blvd.

Mobile, AL 36607

Refreshments will be provided.

For more information, please call 251-435-6950

Palliative Care is supportive care that focuses on quality of life for the patient and caregivers throughout the course of the disease. This informational session will help you better understand Palliative Care and how it might benefit a person living with dementia.

Presented by Infirmary Cancer Care, Mary Nelson, RN, Valenda Lankford, LGSW, and June Lassister, CRNP on Thursday, November 8th at 5:00 pm.

E.A. Roberts Alzheimer’s Center

169 Mobile Infirmary Blvd.

Mobile, AL  36607

For more information, please call 251-435-6950.

E.A. Roberts Alzheimer’s Center

There will not be a support group meeting held in June. They are in the process of transitioning their support group meetings to be held once a quarter at 5:00 p.m. after the Center has closed for the day. Participants whose caregivers attend the meeting will be permitted to stay until the meeting has ended at 6:00 p.m.

The next support group is scheduled for Thursday, August 2nd at 5:00 p.m.

If you have any questions, please contact the offie at 251-435-6950.