jpg.jpg)
Tatton Flower Show 2021
This border is made up of the Forget-Me-Not
colours and represents the unique love between a person living with dementia and their closest loved ones. The two chairs and the symmetrical planting around them represent the comfort they find in each other.
Sitting in this shared world, their view is the same when the chairs are perfectly aligned. If one chair is moved, their view is altered even though they are in the same space.
This is how dementia works, it changes how someone perceives a once familiar world. It is up to us as carers to shift our chair in order to see the world as they do and help them embrace it and live comfortably within it.
In the summer of 2021 we took on potentially one of our biggest challenges. Creating a community border at RHS Tatton Flower Show. Due to the Covid situation and the very hot weather none of our participants were able to be involved in the building of the garden.
However, their influence was present in so many ways. The concept of the design was based on the experiences shared by our groups. Their comments about our sessions together were burned onto a row of wooden stepping stones for everyone to see. And providing the talking point of the garden were a mass of painted pebbles, created by groups of people with dementia across Lancashire and Cumbria, highlighting their individuality.
We were very proud to be awarded a Silver Gilt medal, but more importantly, a lot of conversations were held with visitors to the show about how dementia was affecting their lives, how to make the most of their lives despite the challenges, or how to support a loved one as best they could.
