Illustration created for Health Union, LLC Alzheimer’s Community Article “Coloring Through Progression”

The tone of the community is somber as they face the challenges of dementia as both a caregiver and a patient, realistic about the struggles and complicated emotions that accompany anticipatory grief, and passionate about pushing back against the stigma of feeling unable to talk about the disease.

In this article, the caregiver reflects on her time with her mom before she passed from Alzheimer’s and how coloring was a peaceful meditation for her mother, and eventually an activity they would do together when conversation was no longer possible.