The city of Plymouth is home not only to Parks’ Place but also to Jodi Melsness, registered nurse who works with people with dementia and live in memory care. On top of that, her own mother was diagnosed with dementia and Jodi became her caregiver. Jodi started a blog to share her journey as a caregiver of someone with dementia, and ultimately turned her blog into a memoir, The Lemon Bar Queen.
Her memoir describes the journey as a caregiver, capturing fun moments, happy moments, difficult moments, and low moments. Caregivers at any stage of their caregiving journey will be able to relate to Jodi and her journey.
It was because of Jodi’s relatability and local connection that we reached out to her to see if she would be willing to speak about her book with family caregivers. At Parks’ Place, we understand that the diagnosis of dementia affects the whole family in addition to the person with dementia. Caregivers now find themselves in a role they never expected with new challenges every day. Caregivers being able to connect and relate to each other helps to lessen the sense of isolation, which can happen as the dementia in their loved one progresses. We saw Jodi’s experience and expertise as a great opportunity to host an event geared towards caregivers connecting and relating to one another. Jodi was immediately interested and jumped at the chance to meet with us!
We had a group of about 12 family caregivers on zoom with Jodi as she described her journey and the perspective she brought as a registered nurse. The time flew by in what felt like just a few minutes, and before we knew it, 90 minutes had passed! The 90 minutes was full of sharing stories, perspective, questions, and a little behind the scenes of what it’s like to write a book.
We enjoyed our conversation with Jodi so much, we invited her to be the keynote speaker for the Inaugural Parks’ Place Family Symposium taking place later this month. The Family Symposium is an event for our current residents’ family members and will have various speakers from our leadership team and the Parks family. Jodi will be our keynote at the end of the event. We are so excited to be working with her again.
If you’d like to learn more about Jodi and The Lemon Bar Queen, you can find her here at her website.
Parks’ Place Memory Care is a privately owned assisted living home, specialized and specifically designed for those with Alzheimer’s and other dementias. Our home is for people of any stage of dementia so they are able to age-in-place in their home. For tours, general information, or admission inquiry, please contact Kaitlin Kelly at 763-710-8484.
