Agnes ponders how she might reconnect with her local community.
Good morning everybody, it’s Agnes from Coatbridge calling.
It’s funny I haven’t made many diaries – I’ve been struggling a bit with the flare up of my respiratory issues and it’s flared up again. I’m back on steriods and antibiotics and it’s not a pleasant place to be.
I had a phone call which stimulated something in my head, I’d say last week, from the priest of the church I attend. It’s not my – what should I say – designated local church, I don’t go to that. This is the one that’s down in the main shopping centre, just near me a bus ride. And I like the [inaudible] and I like the priest and I like the parishioners so I feel comfortable there. And I had a phone call from him; how he got my phone number I do not know because as I say I’m not registered officially there because it’s not allowed or something. Anyway, it was so lovely and I felt so emotional because it was a particularly bad few days. It just made me feel connected to something other than my dementia virtual world. And I thought I haven’t remained connected anymore to my local community.
When I was a young, married woman and had Donna as a child, of course I was connected very much so: walking up to school and being involved in that, and getting to know the mums in the family. And then life changed and then I became a carer for my mum and dad and I got involved in the community through that. And of course with my nursing I became involved. The worst part of diagnosis of dementia – my connection to that community, and I don’t think I realised that, was cut – there was none. I fitted nowhere and I wasn’t able to go to chapel because of my sensory overload and things changed and I never realised they changed until this pandemic.
It became very apparent that I don’t feel connected to Coatbridge in any manner or means except for my connection to my chapel. And I have tried; I went to the knit club, I’d forgotten about that because I haven’t been there since February because of you know and then the lockdown. But nobody had phoned me, nobody had stayed connected to me and I just don’t know. And that’s why I put the tweet out ‘How can I reconnect?’ and I got a lot from the dementia world and I thank them very much but I don’t want to go to dementia classes. I want to be connected to my local community out there which is full of people with all disabilities, dementia included. And I want, when I come out of this lockdown, everything’s changing and I need to be proactive into establishing something that’s going to connect me to my community again and I don’t know what it looks like.
I am amazed at the suggestions that I have come across and I thank everybody for them. And my support [inaudible] and I will sit and we’ll sift through and we’ll see what will work for Agnes and what I can do and how I can stay connected. I feel blessed that I’ve got my dementia family, the Zoomettes. The DEEP network has put an arm of safety round me and kept me well mentally and they spoke to me face-to-face to listen, sent me lovely cards and I want to thank each and everyone for what you have done.
Bye for now.
