New Ways to Stay Connected When Words Are Lost // Shauna Sweeney

Name: New Ways to Stay Connected When Words Are Lost // Shauna Sweeney
Uploaded: 2025-05-29T16:32:32+00:00
Duration: 1 min 1 s
Channel: Claudia von Boeselager
Description: In this reflective monologue, Shauna Sweeney shares her personal journey caring for her father with Alzheimer’s disease. She describes an initial phase…

29 May 2025 · 1 min

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1:01

In this reflective monologue, Shauna Sweeney shares her personal journey caring for her father with Alzheimer’s disease. She describes an initial phase of denial and resistance, followed by a gradual surrender to the reality of the disease, which allowed her to develop a new, positive relationship with her dad despite his loss of complex verbal communication. Shauna connects this experience to the concept of "sandwich caregiving"—balancing care for an aging parent while raising young children—and explains how parenting toddlers taught her to appreciate and nurture deep, non‑verbal connections. She emphasizes that embracing this altered form of relationship can bring joy and meaningful moments, encouraging others to seek out similar opportunities for connection with loved ones living with dementia.

Chapters

I have found that Alzheimer's has been an incredible teacher for me because there was so much of me fighting it in the beginning, denying it, doing my best to try and combat this thing that has no cure right now. And then ultimately surrendering to the process that we have been a part of now for some time and coming out on the other side with a new relationship with my dad. It's certainly not the same as the one that we had when I was in college, for instance, but it's still very positive. And you know, you mentioned sandwich caregiving. If anything, having toddlers has really taught me to embrace what it's like to have a relationship with my dad now, which is that you can be so deeply connected to someone who is not speaking in complex sentences and is not sitting there and doing a lot of the adult activities that you would do with others that you would expect to, but you're still having the time of your life. And I found there's so many opportunities for that if you can embrace this very new type of relationship. With your loved one.