Today is my dad’s 77th birthday. A pretty impressive age. Buying him gifts has always been a challenge, and now that he’s enduring the ever increasing losses of Alzheimer’s disease, the big thing is to find something he can connect with in the moment he opens it and gain some simple pleasure from.

I decided to paint him a seascape. It took me back to being a small child painting pictures for my dad, and already knowing the pride that would shine from his eyes when he saw it. There’s some irony in that given that my dad no longer knows I am his daughter, or that he ever had children, but that’s a story for another day.

The man who I will give this painting to is kind and caring, and loves art. My hope is that the sea in the scene will make him smile.

As today’s creative prompt I invite you to consider how you might attempt to connect with someone whose memory is failing them, and how that interaction might turn out.

If you write or create something prompted by this, please send an email to Judy(at)socket creative.com to let me know. With your permission, I’ll publish it on SkyLightRain.com.