‘Tap into who they are’

CHRISTY AVERY

CHRISTY.AVERY@NEWSANDTRIBUNE.COM

NEW ALBANY — On Friday, a patient at Charlestown Place received a special surprise on Friday: a new baby doll.

The memory care resident has struggles with cognition, but as she held her baby girl, swaddled in a handmade blanket with a blue bow around the middle, all the ways of motherhood seemed to come back to her. She held the doll close to her face — taking care to support her head and neck — cooing and murmuring gently, telling the baby how pretty she was and how much the other residents would love her.

“How do you like having your picture taken?” she asked the doll, playfully touching her nose. “You’re so popular.”

She was one of several residents at the New Albany nursing facility to be gifted a doll or toy dog from Pearl’s Memory Babies, a Shepherdsville, Kentucky-based nonprofit working to provide tangible comfort to Alzheimer’s and dementia patients nationwide.

The group paid a visit to Charlestown Place Friday morning, where they pulled wagons of baby dolls, dressed in pastel pinks, yellows and blues for Easter, to the curious group of residents. The delivery also included stuffed dogs and cats for male residents or those who preferred animals, another way to take them back to the core memories and emotions that time and health can’t take away.

Pearl’s Memory Babies started in an official capacity in 2018, but the idea formed nearly a decade before in 2006, when president Sandy Cambron and her husband, Wayne, began experimenting with ways to connect to Wayne’s mother Pearl, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s and dementia.

Cambron said they tried a number of different approaches, but it wasn’t until she drew from her own childhood love of dolls that they found the key to draw Pearl out of her shell. She decided to gift her a doll, and the change was almost instant, she said; Pearl began talking and feeling excitement again, carrying the baby with her everywhere for a year until she died.

The success with Pearl led Cambron and her husband to start a quiet venture gifting baby dolls to memory care residents in other facilities, hoping to add joy to holidays and everyday life. In 2018, Cambron’s co-worker shared her

See DOLLS on A3

Willa was one of several residents at Charlestown Place to be gifted a new baby doll Friday from Pearl’s Memory Babies, a nonprofit dedicated to serving memory care patients through dolls and toy animals. Holding the new addition, Willa remarked the baby’s eye color, blue, matched that of her own children’s.

Christy Avery | News and Tribune

While some residents received baby dolls, others were given stuffed puppies or kittens to care for. One man marveled at the similarity of his stuffed Yorkie to his own former dog, after staff members put in a special request for a toy version of the breed that was beloved in the man’s family.

Christy Avery | News and Tribune

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own mother had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and Cambron offered to provide dolls for her memory care unit that Valentine’s Day.

“The staff asked Shannon to post it on Facebook so the family members could see the photos,” Cambron said. “My daughter calls me at work the next day, and we’re viral on Facebook.”

The post garnered half a million shares within 24 hours, messages and donations coming in from 17 countries. The next night, Cambron told Wayne they should start a GoFundMe, unsure of how else to manage the ongoing donations and encouragement. Pearl’s Memory Babies blossomed from there, gaining attention from outlets like People Magazine and The Today Show.

Cambron estimates the organization has delivered at least 4,000 dolls over the past eight years.

“It’s just been awesome to be able to do it and see their faces,” Cambron said.

Cambron prepares the dolls herself in what she calls her “baby-making room,” a converted space in her home dedicated to racks of colorful doll clothing and blankets. She carefully wraps, dresses and primps each one before deliveries, making sure to note upcoming holidays or seasons and take requests like ethnicity or favorite colors from care home staff members.

For many residents, she said, being handed a doll serves as a way to replicate their own lives, bringing back the familiarity of raising a family.

“They’ll start telling us about their children and how many they had,” she said. “It’s so sweet.

For others, the dolls instill in them a sense of purpose, even fulfilling lifelong dreams.

“I had a lady last time we did a delivery where she took the baby and started crying,” Cambron said. “She looked at me and she said, ‘I’ve never had a child. I always wanted one, and now I’ve got one.’ It doesn’t matter if they think they’re a baby or they think they’re a doll. They just love the sweet smile on the baby’s face and having something to hold.”

That mix of emotions was prevalent as babies or puppies were placed into the hands of each patient oneby- one.

Laughing as she took her doll, resident Willa compared the baby’s blue eyes to those of her own children. Another less-enthused resident considered her doll for a moment before handing it back to Cambron, saying “I’m not going to have no baby.”

“He doesn’t do much,” one man said after receiving a stuffed dog, minutes before Gordon, another resident, embraced a small toy Yorkie — the same breed his family spent decades raising. He spoke of his former pet, whose colors mirrored those of the toy’s.

For many of the patients, the rest of the world seemed to fade away after the delivery, as they enjoyed private moments with their babies and pups.

Behavioral Health Specialist Heather Lowry said Friday’s delivery was the first time Pearl’s Memory Babies visited the facility, and it was one way staff tries to make the environment as warm and natural as possible for the people in their care.

“We’re just finding ways to help them continue on with their life,” she said. “This isn’t the end. This is just another stage in their journey.”

Whether a resident truly believes a doll is a human baby depends on their cognitive abilities, Lowry said; one woman who received a baby from Lowry remarked “She’s not real, but she’s cute.”

Still, Lowry said, most residents light up regardless. She said while dementia patients lose brain function, they don’t lose the ability to laugh, cry, be angry or feel joy, and the baby dolls serve as a reminder they are still people with needs that matter.

“We succeeded that mission today by putting smiles on their faces and giving them something of their own,” Lowry said. “With dementia, the short-term memory is what goes, but if we can tap into those core memories and who they were before this disease took over their life, we can tap into who they are.”