Nic's Nanna, the girls Grandma recently stayed with us for a week. It was only during this time that the importance of memory in ageing really hit home. Nan was able to recall significant events from her childhood and spoke easily about this but could not remember some things that had happened in the previous week or even within a matter of hours. Memory loss comes to us in a variety of ways and a diagnosis of Alzheimers or Dementia is devastating for families. Nan has not been given these diagnoses so I expect some of her memory loss may be purely aged related.
My point in all this is that after entering the Aged Care work force in 2006 as a Registered Nurse, I am increasingly seeing the effects of memory loss on people and when I speak to families very few have ever documented information their mother, father, aunt or uncle have said, done, experienced etc. Some residents have old photo's but many are not labeled so the subsequent generations have no idea who is in them.
It was great having Nan stay and the girls enjoyed the experience, but I was saddened by the fact that Nan has memories that are locked in her mind that my children may never know because no-one had asked them to record their experiences. Nan was born in Scotland and her tales while she was staying with us just showed me how different life was for her as a young child as compared to me, and now my own children. Her generation appreciates everything they have, but our children could grow up expecting things and possibly never having to work that hard to achieve them.
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