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January 2017
Dear Friends,
Year-round Programs & Presence in Topsfield, MA, USA
This 2017 is a watershed year for us. We are in our 7th year turning our own dementia-care trauma (Frontotemporal degeneration/FTD), into loving-kindness services for dementia-caregivers and people living with dementia, in the present moment. We've learned a lot from the past seven years providing services of six kinds: mobile, online, onsite, print, product and place. We are in our 3rd year offering a Memory Café, and it is our 2nd year being funded in part by Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services, for our Inclusive Memory Café program. We also continue to receive generous individual contributions for which we are most grateful.
Considering that we have built a great program, we now need "the people to come." It is our #1 priority to continue to build community relationships, raise awareness and education about our inclusive social programs for dementia-caregivers, people-with-dementia, and other individuals, couples, and families living with the effects of long-term-care.
To accomplish this goal, we are investing our 2017 resources and offering, new this year:
- A Bi-monthly "Younger Onset" Dementia-Caregiver Support Group (Year-round, by RSVP)
- The Dementia-Caregiver Living History Museum & School (Year-round, by appointment/RSVP)
- A weekly street-side presence, April - October, Saturdays, 10a - 12p, “Memory Café”
We will need more volunteers to help us offer these more frequent free-of-charge services. Please contact me if you're interested in contributing your time, resources, or money.
Please pray for us, who are providing and facilitating the programs, that we may continue to have the personal health, passion, persistence, financial and community support to vision, build, maintain and grow the programs.
Please pray for caregivers in the trenches of caregiving, that they may:
- find the support they need
- not feel alone
- feel supported and renewed
- hold on to a sense of hope through ongoing losses, recovery and renewal
Please feel free
to schedule with me
a Come and See... Tour & Tea
at a time convenient for you.
Moving forward with a listening heart,
vision, inquiry, and action,
~ Mary
Topsfield Younger Onset CG Support Group Started Jan 12
 Signs point the way to the Caretaker's Cottage, where programs take place, including the new face-to-face Alzheimer's Association co-sponsored Caregiver Support Group for caregivers age 65 and younger caring for a loved one with dementia under age 65 (free-of-charge - open to the Public via RSVP, space is limited to 10 participants and 10 cars). Meets bi-monthly on the 2nd and 4th Thursday of the Month, 6pm - 7:30pm Contact me if interested in joining our group. We currently have six group members and four seats available.
It was Karl's idea, and loving service, to hang colorful lanterns to light the way for our caregiver group, meeting in the evening, after sunset.
Signage and lanterns at the Caretaker's Cottage let caregivers know they've arrived.
The flying pig yard-art is a fun symbol communicating that we have kept our minds and hearts open to all possibilities of serving our neighbors living with the long-term effects of long-term illness and disability. I continue to be inspired and supported by the quote in T. Roosevelt's autobiography:
"Do what you can
With what you have
Where you are."
Saving Lives ~ Family Caregivers
2-HOUR INDIVIDUAL GUIDED RESPITE RETREATS
Are you a weary family caregiver living North of Boston? Consider taking 2 hours away from your to-dos to restore your body-mind-heart in ways unexpected and wonderful.
Learn more about Respite Retreats >
Mourning Matters... Reflecting on Holiday Traditions
Shown above: Over the Winter Holiday Break, Karl and I visited my parent's grave in North Syracuse, NY. We installed an evergreen wreath and said a few prayers.
Following up on my practice to shift some of my grief from my mother's death anniversary, Christmas Eve, to a weekday mass prior the holiday... this did help. I appreciated the opportunity to have a "Mom Remembrance Day," before the Christmas weekend. Doing so, helped me to reclaim more of the Christmas holiday for experiencing joy and love with my spouse, Karl, and other family and friends.
April 2017, a Weekly Memory Café Begins, Saturdays, 10am
We support families impacted by long-term-care, in an inclusive, friendly, judgement-free, and joy-filled indoor/outdoor environment, once-a-week, Apr-Oct.
1. Our Dementia-Friendly Farm/Memory Café program will welcome visitors with dementia and their care-partners on Saturday mornings, from 10am - 12noon, April - October.
2. We hope the increased options for visiting will enable more caregivers and loved ones with dementia to visit us more often during the growing season, ideally building into the Saturday morning weekly routine a "visit to the farm," either as the first or last stop.
3. We will continue to prepare our gardens once-a-month for "show" and for best "wheelchair-access," on typically the 2nd Sunday of the month. This will continue to be our "Sunday Stroll and Memory Café" day.
We welcome members of our local community to help us with offering this weekly hospitality ministry. Many volunteer options exist.
Learn about our Memory Café in Topsfield, MA >
Find a Memory Café around Greater Boston >
SEEKING VOLUNTEERS AGE 14+ (hospitality hosts, activity leaders, horticulture helpers...)
If interested, please e-mail or call me to discuss, and/or:
Learn more about volunteer opportunities >
Mary E. MacDonald
Foundress & Director/Owner, MaryMac Missions LLC
email: mary@marymacmissions.com
mobile: 978-887-4202
local: 202 Haverhill Road, Topsfield, MA 01983
global: marymacmissions.com
I am available for speaking, training, and retreat engagements. Please e-mail me to discuss your future planning (caregiver support groups and conferences, professional meetings and continuing education, and day/weekend retreats).
Consider how you might support- This Week - a nearby family-with-dementia you know.
- Might you invite someone with dementia to your home for a cup of tea?
- Might you provide an hour of respite for a weary caregiver?
- Might you lend a hand with a maintenance job around their home?
Professionals:
- Might you offer a portion of your practice as pro-bono legal, financial, or mental-health support services to a weary caregiver, or a family impacted by Alzheimer's/Dementia?
Our Practice
Please click on one of the images below to learn more about how we rest, dance, and pray with the long-term-care topic:
  
You are receiving this email because you are a friend, a subscriber, a programs participant, a professional who serves families affected by Alzheimer's or other long-term illnesses, a spiritual leader who counsels families affected by long-term illness, a team member, supplier, partner, mentor, or advisor who is helping to grow the social enterprise Marymac Missions, and/or a social change leader. Please feel free to unsubscribe at any time or change your subscription preferences using the links at the bottom of this email. Please share with family and friends now journeying with long-term illness who may benefit.
our vision:
Care givers and receivers feel and know the presence of caring communitee companions throughout and beyond the long-term-care journey; they are empowered to love themselves and each other in balanced ways; they experience universal comfort, respite and recreation in local natural places of hospitality.
our values:
Creative, Accessible, Sustainable
our mission statement:
Champions for caregivers and adults living with extended illness, we: meet people where they are (locally, financially, physically, mentally, emotionally, socially, spiritually); provide positive experiences, strategies, practices, coping methods and skills through the cycle of health, illness, loss, recovery and renewal; raise public awareness and facilitate communitee alliances between individuals, families, businesses and communitee organizations to reach, include and care for care givers and receivers who become marginalized because of the systemic effects of illness; lead and participate in research that aims to understand the effectiveness of care giver and receiver health programs; support research that aims to illuminate and eliminate the root causes of disease; and adapt to best serve current care giver and receiver needs.
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