Love at First Sight for Seniors
By Linda Fodrini‐Johnson, MA, MFT, CMC
Founder & Chairman, Eldercare Services
I was watching a lovely short film “Love at First Sight” on public televisions’ “Image Makers” last evening and was touched to the heart of my soul because the story is about someone who has significant memory loss and is living in an Assisted Living community falling in love.
We all remember the adrenalin rush of positive emotions when we fell in love for the first or even second time. Falling in love is one of the human emotions with the most visceral of all feelings. You want to shout for joy, you can hardly eat and your thoughts are only of the other – you desire for nothing other that being with the object of this love.
This short film, which at this time can’t be download or purchased, but you can search your local channels to view it, should be an educational film shown to every caregiver both professional and family caregivers of someone with a memory disorder.
The lesson is that when you don’t have a memory for a period of a progressive disease you can be in the moment and what a joy to re-live falling in love every day. The gift in this movie is that the object of his love is able to be in the moment and enjoy the feelings of falling in love with her spouse every day. She doesn’t correct him she just lavishes in the moments with him. You know her heart longs for what was lost, but she doesn’t let her grief interfere with her ability to enjoy the shear pleasure she sees in the man who is falling in love with her over and over again!
A short clip of “Love at First Sight” can be seen on YouTube: