Page 21 - Storytelling - Storylistening

VI. TimeSlips Storytelling Inspires Imagination Rather than Memory for Elders with Dementia
A TimeSlips Poem: “All the way to Seattle”
(This poem was created during a TimeSlips session by dementia-afflicted older adults after viewing a photograph of an aging female pilot.)
Ethel Rebecca may be old, but she’s full of vim and vigor.
She knows how to fly, and flying makes her happy.
Ethel’s got a perfect record - no crashes - because she’s a very determined pilot.
She’s not flying alone - Dizzy Gillespie is in the back seat playing the clarinet.
After Chicago, they’ll fly to Seattle to visit her granddaughter Dorothy.
Ethel has three children, Hilda, ABCDEFG, and Grizelda Mary.
She has a husband - she better! - named James who drives a bus.
He’s only 70...Ethel’s a bit of a cradle robber!
People tell her to keep good sense and keep her feet on the ground.
Her family worries themselves sick about her.
But Ethel flies because it makes her feel free, and because her family
doesn’t pay her enough attention.
All the way to Seattle, the weather is clear, Dizzy plays clarinet, Ethel sings Mary’s
Italian song (“Ceru Luna Mia Maza”), and she remembers the farm her father Lee Hugh built and his big red horse.
But that’s all gone now.
p.17 ©Action Pact, Inc.2005-2006
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