Accompaniment
When my mother Betty was diagnosed with dementia, I discovered something unexpected: this wasn't just a story of loss.
Through firefly fields at midnight and dawn choruses with birds, we found pathways to connection that conventional approaches miss.
The Accompaniment Series shares our journey of mutual change, revealing how beauty creates gateways when memory falters.
AccompanyAI extends these principles into technology that supports people experiencing cognitive change and those who walk alongside them.
Join us in ensuring no one journeys through cognitive change alone.
Author Welcome
“I was Betty Jenkins' primary nurse through the last several months of her life.
I can tell you that Mark's approach to his mom's dementia was unique and refreshing. He managed to see past the dementia to the person beyond the illness. I encouraged him wholeheartedly to consider teaching dementia care because I was so impressed with his empathy and generosity toward his mom. He was swimming upstream and had to defend his care for Betty against all the preconceived and conventional attitudes of the health care community and popular cultural beliefs. He was fearless in defending his mom and in making sure she was cared for as a whole and unique person. It was not always easy.
Sue Hutton, RN, SRT
Nurse for 47 years and for the last 20 years Sue has specialized in palliative care
“Your message offers a window of hope ….that we can take what we have and build from dust....to give a face to people who are changing....a nudge to have a different view, a creative view...rather than the restraints of a diagnosis, or stifled by what isn't any more. We must not avoid the reality of family conflict. Your story contains the new pattern.”
Dr. Rick Irvin,
Palliative Care Physician for North Simcoe region (for 30 years)
There was not a dry eye in the house as Mark Jenkins shared one of the most powerful and honest stories I have ever heard. I wouldn't have missed it for the world. A tale of this kind of love is as rare as the humans in it.
Mark my humble words, this story, that your heart wrote, will travel around the world. It will become a global balm and medicine for our elders and those who accompany them on the brave and final journey home.
Thank you for your incredible courage, storytelling mastery and braveness of heart to walk in the wilderness until you both found your own way home.
Tracy Erin Smith, founder of SoulO Theatre Company