A window of Joy

With a non-verbal dementia patient

Henry here. Our human mummy, April, helps out at an assisted living facility. Usually, our mummy takes Olaf or I when she visits. The people at the facility love us! It’s one of our favorite places to go. Everyone always makes a big fuss about us.

Olaf and I visiting another resident. Our human mummy blurred our friend’s face, so she has privacy. This is not the lady in today’s story. Our human didn’t have her camera out when I made everyone cry joyful tears.

Our mummy is careful, and always asks if someone wants to pet us or say hi. There have been a couple of residents who have shook their heads “no.” And, that’s okay. We get it.

Our human has trained us to always ask for consent.

Sometimes, people with dementia go into a special place called Memory Care. There’s a lady in Memory Care with a nice son and his wife. When they visit, they bring his mother out of the Memory Care area. It’s such nice weather now, that frequently, they wheel her out in the front on the porch.

We get official Name Badges when we visit

I know this lady really well. She doesn’t talk like other humans, but slaps her hand on her wheel chair. I carefully walk up and sit down in front of them. My human mummy asks her son if it’s okay to come closer. Once they say yes, I stand up and walk forward.

The son and his wife like to pet me, but I always go directly to his mummy. I know how important mummy’s are. She stops patting her wheelchair and pats my head. Sometimes she makes sounds, that sound like laughter.

Last Thursday, we started to do our standard routine. I sat down in front of them. My human mummy asked if we could come closer and the mother said really loud, “Yes! Henry! Come here!”

I almost wagged my tail off. I approached and she smiled and laughed and said my name three times. “Henry, Henry, Henry!”

Then she smiled! She has a really pretty smile, I’ve never seen it before.

Then she said, “Henry my good boy!”

I looked over and the son was crying. Not sad crying, joyful crying. His wife was crying too. As I walked back to my human mummy, she was wiping her eyes too.

I love it when humans cry happy tears.

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