Always With You

The focus on caring for and supporting someone with a memory loss illness is most often on what is being lost as memories and abilities slip further and further away. It can feel like a freefall with nothing to hold onto. But we do have something to hold onto, something that is always with us, and that is our spirituality. Our spirituality—the sense of all that gives meaning, value and purpose to our lives, yet is beyond and greater than us—remains even beyond the veil of dementia.

It is through important relationships and accomplishments, our sense of community, our sources of inspiration, hope, joy, and what we value most in our life that we find our spirituality. Spiritually, persons living with dementia can be comforted, supported, encouraged, and strengthened through the rituals, practices, and activities that have brought meaning and a sense of the sacred to their life. Just as food, clothing, and shelter are lifelong basic needs, care, connection, and assurance are lifelong spiritual needs. For those who love and care for someone living with dementia, spirituality is a tethering bond to that person, an unforgettable and solid anchor of who this loved one is and was, as they slowly slip deeper into the fog of disease.

Spirituality is always with us. This website, Always With You, offers practical tips, stories, a blog, workshops, worship suggestions and congregation resources as a partner to Always With You: The Comfort of Spirituality for Those Living in the World of Dementia. (forthcoming from Pilgrim Press, late 2025)