Reading is a connection to life like nothing else. It is strong enough to hold us up and keep our ties to others alive. I see this happen in real time with my one-on-one dementia clients. When I arrive, they may be a bit cloudy and confused. Often they are a bit down, complaining of the loneliness of television.

But as I read, I see the fog begin to clear. With a few reminders, the characters come into place. The connections to events we’d read in the previous session come back and by the end of the chapter, we are both speculating on what will happen next and why we think so.

In a recent article, Jo Glanville wrote of the power of reading to her parents as they moved through the stages of dementia: “They retained their ability to comprehend and follow a story, as well as their knowledge of the meaning of obscure words.”

Reading and being read to is one of the unique human joys, and at Spirit of Reading, we delight in being able to bring that spark to a person’s day.