Her Dad Was Losing Memory, So They Took Literal Trip Down Memory Lane

Francesca Mari reflects on how reminiscence therapy factored in during a big trip with her father
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Jul 7, 2024 5:00 PM CDT
Her Dad Was Losing Memory, So They Took Literal Trip Down Memory Lane
Stock photo.   (Getty Images/Image Source)

When Francesca Mari decided to take a European trip with her aging dad, it wasn't just fun that she was hoping for. Writing for the New York Times, Mari expands on her father's Alzheimer's and how, as dementia started to steal his memories, she hit upon an idea: Why not take him to Switzerland and Italy to re-create a 1966 boyhood trip he'd taken there that he always spoke fondly of? It would be an attempt at "reminiscence therapy," a palliative treatment for people with cognitive disorders that focuses on dredging up the patient's most powerful memories—typically formed between the ages of 10 and 30, "during the so-called memory bump, when personal identity and generational identity take shape."

Mari starts with the ordeal of making sure her dad—who raised her after her mother died, when Mari was just 10—made his initial flight from California to her in Rhode Island so they could travel to Europe together. She recalls her father's initial diagnosis, which came after his own mother also suffered from dementia, then dives into their whirlwind trip, which included a stop in the Swiss neighborhood where his own father had been born and raised. There, and throughout their adventure, her dad's memories began to flow, about his boyhood, his daughter's childhood, and her mom—and Mari noticed that "by the time we arrived in Naples, my father seemed to be a younger man," able to walk much longer distances than usual and chatting up a storm. "Was it possible that, by expecting a lot of him with no real stakes ... I had helped him roll back his disease by engaging in the present?" Read her piece in full here. (More dementia stories.)

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