To Whom…Letter writing is becoming a lost art but for the person with Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a letter holds the possibility of sharing with someone the experience of life after the diagnosis. Conversations around the table or on the run are difficult. To paraphrase a gentleman with AD, “…by the time I get my thoughts together to contribute to the conversation, you’ve already moved on to the next topic.” A letter is a way to “…keep your attention without losing my thoughts.”
I…People with a dementia related illness often say that friends look at them differently once their diagnosis is known. Facial expressions speak of uncertainty, uneasiness, and pity and eyes move to the space between rather than directly into the eyes of the person with AD. The person with dementia is spoken “about” rather than spoken “to.” In that moment, a subject becomes an object, and “I” becomes an “it”.
In To Whom I May Concern a refocusing occurs as people share their lived experience. “I” takes the stage and replaces the “it”. The audience of care partners relaxes and listens. Eye contact is made and person to person connection is possible
May Concern…The word “concern” comes from the latin, concernere meaning to sift together or mix. If we are concerned about someone, we let our lives mix. Concern is not a one-way street. Concern implies a connection in which we are all changed. In To Whom I May Concern people with dementia share their stories and both the giver and receiver are changed in the telling and the listening. Sifting our lives together enriches us all.
Oliver Sacks in his original preface to Awakenings noted that it is not enough to understand disease in mechanistic and chemical terms. Healthcare, he reminds us, is about not only science but also art. The art of healthcare focuses on the person who suffers and survives under the unique circumstances of illness. It asks the question: “What happens to the person who has a particular disease?” How is the person transformed? And how are the people who accompany this person as friend, family, or healthcare professional transformed?
To Whom I May Concern is an interactive theater project that seeks to respond to these questions posed by Sacks. Joining health care with the performing arts, To Whom I May Concern gives voice to individuals silenced by disease and allows them to share their experience with the friends, family, and healthcare professionals that accompany them.
