Recording a life story in the early days of Alzheimer's

Seeing all this stuff around about family history and so forth, I was asking my mum some specific questions about her Granddad. She could hardly answer any of my questions, I suppose she never really thought to ask. In light of this as I work in documentary film I decided to record my Granddad on video. I was quite new to it at the time and found it a bit daunting to be honest, where to start etc.. But as often happens to me I had a bit of an idea in the shower the morning before I had arranged to film, why not just start from the beginning, from what he recalls is his earliest memory, then work through very slowly (painstakingly slowly at some points) and build up all the most important people in his life and a few events that happened around each of them. It took 4 days!(which was a bit excessive but it was my first time and there were lots of breaks) but he is 89. But by the end, it was such a wonderful 4 days. I'm 24, and I feel I know my Granddad so much better now and what's more I have this record of his whole life with him telling it that I can show to my children and grandchildren (who aren't born yet).

I've gone on and done the same process with almost all of the rest of my family now, and got much more efficient at the process and have ironed it out a bit now.

I was wondering if this is something that was possible with early sufferers of Alzheimer's? and if so if people would want to do it I am happy to help give advice on the nitty gritty of how to do it.

Hi there

My mum has just been diagnosed with early onset of Alzheimer's. We were told to start a Life Story Book with photo's and get as much info from mum about the photo's - where they were taken, why, who else is in the photo etc. I haven't started as yet as this is all new to me. Do I just gather her photo's together and pop them in an album? Asking mum to write about each photo? I'm not sure how keen mum may be with the videoing aspect as she's very shy (just like me). Any advice would be appreciated.

RoxieGirl

i think its a great idea as i have just recently been diagnoised with early on set dementia and am thinking about doing this myself as there is so much family history to tell (i was fostered then adopted when i was 9 years old ) and would love to leave my children and hubby with my life story xxxx

hi my name is miss cool , i was very intorested in the things , i just would like to say its a good ideal i scrapebooked one quite a long time ago but now i have made a scrap book of all the things i like . hobbys ect... its an on going thing it will end when it ends. i will try to return if my brain lets me. all my best wishes from miss cool.........