Always Ageless w Valerie v June 23 2025 Guest Kitty Norton

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:20):
What if grief had a soundtrack? What if dementia had
a voice not just clinical or quiet, but raw, real, human,
maybe even funny. And what if somewhere between sorrow and survival,
someone got in an old RV, poured a glass of

(00:40):
wine and said, let's tell the truth about what this
really feels like today. I'm always ageless. I have the
deep privilege of sitting down with someone whose voice has
got in the hearts and homes of thousands. Kitty Norton
is a storyteller, a daughter, a caregiver, and the creator

(01:02):
of a powerful documentary film, Women, Wine and Dementia. What
began as a heartfelt blog called Stumped Town Dementia, written
during her years as a caregiver for her mom and
I believe also for her dad, turned into a cross
country journey to find healing, laughter, connection, and ultimately a

(01:23):
story worth sharing with the world. And this isn't a
conversation only today. It's a tribute to caregivers, to the storytellers,
to those navigating love and loss in the same breath,
and to the woman who turned pain into purpose and

(01:43):
somehow into art. So stayed with us because what you're
about to hear may just change how you see aging,
caregiving and what it means to be truly seen. Welcome
Kitty Norton from Women, Wine and Dementia to Always Ageless.

Speaker 2 (02:02):
Thank you so much, Bellie.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
I'm you know, ever since we met, I've been excited
about the chance to get to do this with you
and be a part of your show.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
So thank you, thank you.

Speaker 1 (02:12):
And I might mention just to start that we met
in Florida at the National Aging and Place and American
Society for Aging conferences were combined and I saw a
bit of your movie and I knew right away. First
of all, of course I had to have you on
Always age Us on our radio show. But second, I
want everyone to know that we are bringing Wine, Women

(02:32):
and Dementia with your approval. Of course, we've been working
behind the scenes to Orange County, So after this episode,
if you'd like to know when that's going to be,
when that showing will be in a live theater, be
sure and let us know, and we will keep you
informed of all the details. But this is a story
that everyone needs to hear. And as I was preparing

(02:52):
for today, kid, I was wondering if I needed to
bring Kleenex with me or not, but I think I'll
be okay.

Speaker 4 (02:57):
I think I'll be okay.

Speaker 1 (02:59):
So you've always said, Kitty, that you love telling stories
and you love stories, so let's start with that. What
first drew you to storytelling in the first place. What
do you think it was.

Speaker 4 (03:09):
I was always a big reader.

Speaker 3 (03:10):
So even as a child, you know, mom had me
signed up for I think it was the Doctor Seuss.

Speaker 2 (03:15):
She got one book a month, and I'd get so excited,
you know, to get my book. So I've always been
a big reader.

Speaker 3 (03:23):
And then I also tended to go with the older stories,
either classics or I didn't read a lot of contemporary
because I found that I really enjoyed the stories that
had kind of at least made it the first fifty
years and they were still very relevant. And then my
profession went into nonprofit theater and I was working for

(03:47):
a regional theater in Portland, Oregon, and you know, I
was once again, Now I'm in Shakespeare. Now I'm in
some of the most impactful theater pieces that have been
written in the last one hundred years, let alone four
hundred years ago. So I've always been a big supporter
of stories and enjoyed writing myself didn't really see a

(04:10):
movie or a blog in my future. But I also
did not see caregiving. So that's how that all came about.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
Yes, Yes, And I think it's important to talk about
that because most of us didn't see this, And I
think that I talked about this in.

Speaker 4 (04:25):
Our group and with Catherine's group.

Speaker 1 (04:26):
Many of us and I know you have too, that
many of us who are our age didn't see ourselves
as caregivers. We thought at this point in our lives
we maybe would be retired and we'd be traveling the
world all those things you dream of. But instead we
still have parents are who are alive and going through
their own challenges. And the demographics have changed so much
now that there's older adults and there's us, and we're older,

(04:48):
but they're older than we are.

Speaker 4 (04:50):
Lots of things have changed.

Speaker 3 (04:52):
Yeah, and my parents didn't see dementia coming either, so
we all had a very different road to travel than
we initially had planned for.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
Yes, so you work behind the scenes as a post
production assistant.

Speaker 4 (05:07):
That is that correct?

Speaker 1 (05:08):
And how did that early experience in media shape by
the way that you see the world today.

Speaker 3 (05:14):
Uh, well, it got me a lot of training in
how post production works. I eventually went from post production
assistant to assistant editor while I was in LA and
I was working towards an editor's chair. That's where I
was really hoping to get so I could help shape
the stories you know, that other people had written and
other people had filmed. I just love that part of

(05:35):
the background part of it. It just taught me a
lot about the business of working the back end and
all the things that have to happen. And that's probably
one reason why, you know, most independent movie budgets, the
majority of us spent on production, and then it's always
post production is like, well, here's.

Speaker 4 (05:53):
A little bit of money, fixed it up.

Speaker 2 (05:56):
So well was the exact opposite.

Speaker 3 (05:57):
I was like, whatever, whatever, dude, just get me footage,
because the most important stuff happens.

Speaker 4 (06:03):
In the back Yeah. Absolutely, Yeah, you're the one who
really makes it look good.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
So just for the benefit of our viewers and our
listeners and people who aren't in movies like you, you
have had the privilege to be.

Speaker 4 (06:13):
So what is a post production editor, Well.

Speaker 3 (06:17):
An editor is like I worked on Grim, So Grim
was one of my shows. There was a few other
NBC shows that didn't go very far, but that was
probably the one most known to people. So once the
footage is all done, you know, there's usually an eight
day shooting, and then the footage gets taken to editorial
and we usually get I think it was three weeks
for editorial to put the scenes, to take the script

(06:40):
and take the footage and put the scenes together. And
as an assistant, I was helping prep everything for my editor.
I was making sure he had everything he needed to
get his job done because he's a really high pressure
work fast.

Speaker 2 (06:54):
You've got the executive producer sitting behind you going why that?

Speaker 4 (06:57):
Why that?

Speaker 1 (06:58):
You know, move that, change that, and by the way,
why isn't it all done perfectly by now right right
exactly right at the very beginning.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
So but it was very exciting too.

Speaker 3 (07:08):
And then we had actually I've worked with a lot
of great executive producers, a lot of great directors.

Speaker 4 (07:13):
I always loved my editors, but it.

Speaker 3 (07:17):
Really gave me a look at like what, you know,
how how you go with a script and then create
the story. I also had to work in reality television
to get my union hours, so I saw people were
just you know, in that business line producers are the
ones who are really they're in the shooting and they're

(07:37):
really writing the show as it is being.

Speaker 4 (07:43):
Shot.

Speaker 3 (07:43):
So, you know, so I got to see a lot
about how that worked, and I learned enough that I
thought I could make a movie. And I was ignorant
enough to know that I did not know that I
shouldn't go.

Speaker 1 (07:55):
Well, And goodness for the for the storytellers and for
the visionaries that we all go through that fortunately, and
that's what makes the world wonderful and that's what gives
us opportunities.

Speaker 4 (08:04):
Right.

Speaker 1 (08:05):
So, before we go into the blog and to the film,
take us back to when your father passed away and
that journey and what role had did your caregiver being
for your mom begin, which one of them was first,
and how did that go?

Speaker 3 (08:21):
Yeah, so mom was diagnosed with vascular dementia in twenty eleven,
actually it was MCI in twenty ten, and then eventually
vascular dementia, and my father, you know, was going to
take care of her until the day she died. Unfortunately,
my dad died of pancratic cancer very quickly, six years

(08:41):
into mom's journey. So I was living down in la
I grew up in Portland, Oregon. My parents were based
up here, and my sister lived on the Oregon coast
and luckily LA to Portland is actually like a two
hour flight. It's really fast, and you get big, big
breaks in post production when the show's not running and

(09:02):
you have all this time off.

Speaker 4 (09:03):
So I came home a lot.

Speaker 3 (09:04):
I was keeping up with how Mom was doing, how
Dad was doing. But once Dad died, and Lexi and
I pretty much lived here the three weeks that he
was dying, we knew that Mom.

Speaker 2 (09:17):
Couldn't live on her own anymore.

Speaker 3 (09:18):
You know. That was just like I saw firsthand twenty
four to seven where she was, and both my sister
and I were like, yeah, we're we got to figure
out our lives because we've got to We've got to.

Speaker 2 (09:31):
Get Mom to the end of hers So that's what
we did.

Speaker 1 (09:36):
And when you started the Stumped Town demandion, first of all,
I'm curious, of course, where did that name come from?
What did you hope to express or accomplish with that?
And did you start that during your mom's journey, was
your dad still alive? What was kind of the time frame?

Speaker 3 (09:52):
Yeah, so Stumped Town actually Portland, PDX is known as
Stump Town.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
And okay, you've ever heard of Stumptown Coffee as I haven't.

Speaker 3 (10:01):
Yeah, so I just liked Stumped Town because I would say,
you know, we're stumped in stumped town.

Speaker 4 (10:07):
We have a no idea what is happening in this
disease as I did.

Speaker 3 (10:12):
Not start writing until mom until dad had been dead
for a couple of years.

Speaker 4 (10:19):
Oh, excuse me, your mom was still alive. Yes, Mom
was alive. It was.

Speaker 3 (10:27):
It was, you know, my sister and I had split
up the week so I had time when when mom
was not my full time job, and I came back
from LA and moved into mom's house with my boyfriend,
so we were here all the time. But my sister
still came from the coast and would live here for
two days a week or three days a week, whatever
her schedule allowed. And I needed something creative, and with

(10:50):
Lexi being here, I was like, well, why don't I,
you know, start writing again, started doing something. The other
idea impetus. Yeah, it worked out really well. But the
other big impetus was all I could find in the media,
the books, the movies, the articles, was what a tragedy
this was was? You know, it's basically devastating your persons now,

(11:14):
as zombie.

Speaker 4 (11:15):
They're the walking dead.

Speaker 3 (11:17):
It was just horrifying to me to be caring for
my mother. And yeah, things were a lot different, and
there was really tough times, but there was also really
fun times. And you know, this was my mom's life.
It didn't matter she didn't remember who I was anymore.
She was still alive. She still had her thoughts and

(11:39):
her feelings. Yes, in fact, some of her thoughts and
feelings were much more stronger than.

Speaker 4 (11:43):
They ever were before. We'd love to hear more about
that Holy smoke.

Speaker 3 (11:50):
So, you know, I wanted people to have another sense
of what this journey was like. And also, my family
has always relied on humor. You know, my sister and
I have the humor our parents gifted us with. So
I just wanted people to know there's some really funny things.
When your mom wakes you up at four in the
morning because she's so excited to show you this thing

(12:13):
on her back that she's never seen before, and it's
her one and only tattoo that she got when she
went to Hawaii.

Speaker 2 (12:19):
Oh oh, oh, you figure it out.

Speaker 4 (12:23):
She's just giggling.

Speaker 2 (12:24):
She doesn't understand what this thing is.

Speaker 3 (12:25):
You know, we had a lot of those types of
interactions too, and I wanted people to understand this journey
is worth going on.

Speaker 2 (12:33):
The end of life is still life, So show up.

Speaker 3 (12:36):
It's tough, it's difficult, there's a lot of tears, but
there's also a lot of love and laughter.

Speaker 1 (12:42):
Well, it's one of the things we hoped to create
with our Always Age this radio show is that you know,
being over fifty five doesn't mean you've died, right, It
doesn't mean you're gonna you started. You just went and
got yourself a wheelchair and it kane and your life
is over. And I laugh because and you've been through this.
But I laugh when people ask me, oh, how old
are you? And you know, like what difference does it make?

(13:03):
And how do I market to if I'm a real
dor how do I market to fifty five plus?

Speaker 4 (13:09):
I don't know. I mean, how old are they?

Speaker 3 (13:11):
Right?

Speaker 4 (13:12):
What does it mean that they're fifty five plus? Day
you turned fifty six, you got old?

Speaker 1 (13:16):
Right? So I think we have we talk a lot
about you know, it's not the age, but it's their stage.
And I think you're absolutely right that people think that
if you have dementia, that you've lost your mind and
you're just you know, just sit in a corner.

Speaker 3 (13:30):
Yeah, you might as well put the rocks in your
pocket and walk on it out into the river.

Speaker 2 (13:33):
I mean, it's like, come on everybody, you know.

Speaker 3 (13:37):
And luckily, because the baby Boomers, I've followed them my
entire life, and when the baby when things start to
happen to the baby Boomers, things start to change. So
now that dementia is happening to them, you know, you
see a lot more people living with dementia doing advocacy,
having their own radio shows, writing their own books, writing
their own blogs, creating plays. I mean, you know, so

(14:00):
things are definitely changing. In twenty sixteen, it was a
pretty grim scenario and I was tired of it, and
I thought, if this is working for other people, great,
But if there's people out there like me who are
like I can't. I just cannot be beaten over the
head with this tragedy anymore.

Speaker 4 (14:22):
It's not helping me get my job done.

Speaker 3 (14:25):
Then I wanted them to see that they weren't the only.

Speaker 1 (14:28):
Ones, right right, So was there a moment when you
realized that your blog had become something bigger than what
you imagined, something that was reaching and actually healing others.

Speaker 4 (14:41):
Do.

Speaker 2 (14:41):
I think with every subscriber, I was like, oh.

Speaker 1 (14:44):
My goodness, somebody reading this. Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:49):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (14:50):
I started to get comments and emails from people that
were saying, this blog has done more for me and
my charagivers skills than any support group, any class I've taken,
you know.

Speaker 4 (15:06):
And they were very personal stories.

Speaker 3 (15:09):
And I don't think my blog was to be all
and end all for anybody to get through dementia, but
I think it was. It was a perspective that wasn't
out there. And you know, I'd write about the day
I didn't want to get up, I didn't want to
get out of bed. I didn't care if mom, you know,
was just meandering around the house with nothing to eat.
I was so exhausted, I was so dejected. So I'd
write about those days. And then I'd write about the

(15:30):
day we found reading glasses in between her butt cheeks.

Speaker 2 (15:34):
When we help to go to wester, Like how did
this even happen? You know? Just and I think people
felt like they could.

Speaker 3 (15:44):
For one, I think they felt like they saw themselves
in these stories, like these were things that happened to
them last week too, And I think they it gave
a permission.

Speaker 2 (15:53):
To laugh and to just.

Speaker 3 (15:58):
Not sweat it so much, you know, just like, ah, yeah,
this is all going to be awful, but don't worry.
It's gonna be even worse next year. So why are
you crying about this little?

Speaker 4 (16:07):
Do you know what you got coming? Right?

Speaker 2 (16:09):
Don't think this.

Speaker 4 (16:10):
Is bad because it's not bad yet. Right, nothing's getting
better in dementia. Yeah, I know.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
I I want to wait to hold my story. But
when I saw your movie, I was I was sitting there.
I thought, oh my gosh, that's me.

Speaker 4 (16:24):
That's me.

Speaker 1 (16:24):
I'm not the only person that feels that way or
things this or has these experiences.

Speaker 4 (16:29):
So how did yeah? Yeah, so how did storytelling?

Speaker 1 (16:33):
Your voice, your humor, which I love your humor and
I'm so glad to know that you can laugh in
your family, your authenticity help you cope though with the
every day to day realities of caregiving.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
Oh gosh. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (16:49):
Our sense of humor too was also very Uh what's
the word I want against ourselves?

Speaker 2 (16:55):
What do you say when it starts with a D?

Speaker 3 (16:58):
The big D may be coming from mere defecated. No,
you know what?

Speaker 1 (17:06):
So we made a lot of fun of ourselves self
self something it's self deprecating, deprecating, that's it, it's not.

Speaker 4 (17:14):
That's better.

Speaker 3 (17:17):
Yeah, we had a very self deprecating of the humor
and my family, and so that made it a lot
easier to take some of the really absurd things that
happened in dementia and just laugh at them, you know,
like this is this is crazy?

Speaker 2 (17:31):
Mom? Why are you wearing five pairs of pants right
at the moment? Is there? Are we having a fancy day?
Like what is happening?

Speaker 3 (17:37):
Yeah? Yeah, like laugh about things. And I and my
sister and I when we would get together, she was here,
you know, at least one day a week, if not four,
and we'd have a wine night at the end of
you know, her shift, and she got Mom to sleep,
and you know, and then I could talk about things
that maybe we're not even funny at the time, but

(17:58):
LEXI could help me find the humor at them, you know,
Lexik help me laugh about him.

Speaker 2 (18:04):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (18:05):
So the humor for me, it was absolutely crucial.

Speaker 3 (18:09):
If I didn't have that sense of humor, I I
don't think I would have lasted two year two you know,
And we cared for Mom until she died five years later.

Speaker 4 (18:20):
So and you know, back to my experience watching your movie.

Speaker 1 (18:23):
When I was watching it and I was watching those people,
your stars, so to speak, the people in your movie laugh,
I was thinking, oh my gosh, because up to that
point I would have felt guilty. I would have felt
like I shouldn't be laughing at my own situation, right,
But they were laughing, yes, and those are my people
on that screen.

Speaker 3 (18:42):
So that's pretty it's pretty great. And I'm worried about
that too. Even in the blog. You know, some of
the some of the funny stuff that's in the film,
well you wouldn't you wouldn't have seen all of it,
but they've taken clips from from little films I did
for the blog. You know, like I had a sense
of humor post in the blog where I do something

(19:03):
that a lot of people could say that is super disrespectful.

Speaker 4 (19:07):
But for my mom it made her.

Speaker 3 (19:08):
Laugh every morning, and then she tried to punch me
in the stomach every morning.

Speaker 2 (19:13):
We had this routine down.

Speaker 3 (19:14):
And you know, there's not many advantages dementia gives you,
but if you can only come up with one joke
that makes your person laugh, well, then you can do
it day after day after day.

Speaker 2 (19:26):
Because I don't remember that you did it.

Speaker 4 (19:29):
They don't know who they are.

Speaker 1 (19:29):
They think it's and I think there was a clip
in your movie about somebody who had coffee every morning?

Speaker 2 (19:36):
Was there?

Speaker 1 (19:36):
Am I making that up? Or and you did coffee
at night or wine at night or something. I don't know,
I don't remember, but it was interesting, it was funny.
So you found a community through your blog. Do you
remember somebody one of your first subscribers i'll call them
or participants, really touched your heart and made it stick
and made you think, yes, I'm onto something, I'm doing

(19:58):
the right thing.

Speaker 3 (20:00):
Gosh, that would have been back in twenty eighteen. I
can't I can't say specifically any person, but I can
say all of them made me feel like that. All
of them made I needed to write that just for myself,
just for my own sanity, but to have other people
reading it and responding in the way they were. Every
single one of those made my journey easier. I was

(20:23):
making their journey easier with these stories. They were giving
me incredible support, just saying that these stories meant something
to them, or sharing their own. You know. Sometimes I
would get people who were like, oh my gosh, let
me tell you about my mom growing dishes at me,
you know. So, yeah, it was crucial. It was crucial
for me to get through this.

Speaker 1 (20:43):
So after your mother passed away, then you said you
wanted to meet people, and you chose five specific people.
So tell our listeners and our audience a little bit
about you decided you wanted to go meet them, How
did you meet them, and what was your plans?

Speaker 4 (21:00):
Your thought?

Speaker 3 (21:01):
Yeah, absolutely so through the blog, I had made friends
all over the world, you know, but some of them
were more support than others. Some of them we just
absolutely clicked.

Speaker 4 (21:15):
And related somehow.

Speaker 3 (21:16):
Yeah, yeah, And so we would email back and forth,
or we would zoom, or even some phone calls back
and forth. But we had never met. And five of
these people were like I had. I had a list
of about eight to nine. I thought, okay, these top five.
If one of them says no, then I'll go on
to the next one. And I after mom died, you know,
everybody knew, everybody supported me, and I finally a couple

(21:40):
months in, I called them up and said, I just
want to get out of here.

Speaker 2 (21:42):
I want to get in a car. I want to
show up at your house with a.

Speaker 3 (21:45):
Bottle of wine and a box of pizza and talk
carecriver smack would you do that?

Speaker 2 (21:51):
And they were like, sure, what are you going to
be here?

Speaker 4 (21:53):
As of course they said sure, they were waiting for you.
You didn't know it, but they were. They were waiting for.

Speaker 2 (21:59):
You, so you know.

Speaker 3 (22:02):
And afterwards I started thinking, well, those conversations might be
really important to other caregivers. So my second call was, Okay,
I'm still doing all of this, but this time I'm
bringing a camera guy the sound man.

Speaker 1 (22:14):
What do you think And they were all okay with that,
all right for whatever?

Speaker 4 (22:20):
Whatever.

Speaker 1 (22:21):
Yeah, and I think, Kitty, if I saw a map,
so correct me. For our listeners, interviewers, you started on
the West coast and then you drove down one part
of the you either drove south or north, and then
you came back from the other directions.

Speaker 3 (22:37):
That correct, Yeah, we did, you know. We start in Portland,
We went up to Seattle for Alison Shreyer. Then we
go over to Chicago for Grace and Ashley, who are
two sisters, Grace being a long distance caregiver. Then we
went to New Hampshire. Wow three couple Matt and Lindsay
who were both taking care of a parent plus raising

(22:59):
three little girl.

Speaker 2 (23:00):
Oh gosh.

Speaker 3 (23:00):
Then we were in Pennsylvania for Roseanne Krekorn, who her
mom actually Rosanna and I knew each other probably the
best before we met. Her mom died a couple months
after mine, and our our stories were very parallel for
a very long time. Uh.

Speaker 4 (23:17):
And then down to Atlanta.

Speaker 3 (23:18):
Because I have a crazy girlfriend, Nico, who had taken
care of her grandmother and her mother also has dementia.
So we stopped in there and then on to Dallas
to meet Veronica and her mom, and back up dropped
my mate and my travel companion in La where.

Speaker 2 (23:37):
She was from, and I came back up to Portland.

Speaker 1 (23:39):
So and of those five ladies, were all of their
their p w d's right parents with dementia's were all
of them still alive.

Speaker 2 (23:49):
No, both Matt and Lindsay's parents in New Hampshire were alive.

Speaker 3 (23:55):
I got to meet Steve. Steve lived with them, her
Lindsay's dad. I was hoping to meet Grace and Ashley's mom,
but they she was in.

Speaker 2 (24:03):
A terrible, terrible place. It just happened that week.

Speaker 3 (24:07):
In fact, I thought we might have to cancel talking
to them, so I didn't get to meet her.

Speaker 4 (24:15):
And Veronica had her mom.

Speaker 3 (24:17):
Linda was still alive and Linda still is so really yeah,
Linda and Ashley and Grace's mom in Chicago is still
alive also.

Speaker 4 (24:25):
I think she's on hospice, you know.

Speaker 1 (24:27):
And how were they in real Were they all exactly
like you knew them to be? Were there any surprises
when you met your five people?

Speaker 4 (24:36):
No?

Speaker 2 (24:37):
No, not at all.

Speaker 3 (24:38):
And the funny thing was we were so ready to talk.
The camera crew would get there earlier and they would
do a formal interview with the people while we were
still on our way there, so they'd get out a
lot of the you know, factual stuff, and some really
great stories came from that too. But by the time
I got there, you know, we just had dinner. They'd say,

(25:00):
up for an outdoor an outdoor shoot. We'd open some
wine and we'd sit down and I had, you know,
a list of questions that I would tuck under my backside,
and you know, if I forgot, i'd pull it out
and ready. But mostly we all just got started and
we could not shut up. I'm sure we just had

(25:20):
so much to say to each other, and we we
had known each other long enough to know that you know,
we think this is gonna work. I mean a little
terrified would have I get there. People don't like me,
you know. Yeah, but that didn't happen in a single place.

Speaker 2 (25:37):
It was.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
It was just we just couldn't stop talking. The camera
crew would wrap. We had three hour we had a
three hour wine chat night. That was what we scheduled
for me and the cast member, and then the camera
crew would rap and they'd go off to their hotel
and we would just sit there and continue to talk

(25:58):
until one or two in the morning. Just we were
so excited to have so many to talk to.

Speaker 1 (26:04):
And so when so before you left, how had you
kind of decided you were going to go anyway and
then you decided you'd film it?

Speaker 2 (26:13):
Yes, but that happened pretty early.

Speaker 3 (26:15):
I think by June I had the DP and the
sound person hired.

Speaker 4 (26:21):
And this was two years ago. When did you actually
twenty three one?

Speaker 3 (26:26):
So Mom died in March twenty twenty one. By June,
because I was both doing the estate sale and getting
just the building blocks for the production to happen, and
we left in September.

Speaker 1 (26:40):
Wow, we spent a girl by kind of girl. So
did you have some sponsors?

Speaker 2 (26:47):
Yes, caregiving dot Com.

Speaker 3 (26:49):
And then we had four wineries donate wine for us.

Speaker 4 (26:52):
So were they all from Oregon?

Speaker 2 (26:55):
Yeah, except for Walla Walla. We had when Walla Walla Washington. Great.

Speaker 4 (26:59):
Ye, that's great.

Speaker 1 (27:01):
So we have a sponsor already for your when you
come here, we already have a we have a wine
store has already said they said we're in.

Speaker 4 (27:07):
So we're excited. But that's we'll wait for that.

Speaker 1 (27:10):
So tell us about the RV. What inspired you to
travel in an RV? Why that one?

Speaker 4 (27:16):
Now?

Speaker 1 (27:17):
I know you talked about and I've heard you talk
about another interview that you were craving freedom at this point,
and that's one thing when you had the opportunity you
not only was the wine a good idea?

Speaker 4 (27:28):
I all end with that, but why the RV? Yeah?

Speaker 3 (27:34):
So even before mom died, you know, Mom and dad
we were always big campers when I was a kid,
but well, yeah, we all did tank camping until I
was probably old enough that I wasn't going camping anymore
because then.

Speaker 4 (27:47):
It was stupid and it was a teenager.

Speaker 3 (27:50):
And then death started to get like motor homes, Where
the hell were these when I was freezing my But yeah, yeah,
you hit me from this right, so you know, I
was experienced with them, but like I was terrified. We
sold mom and Dad's motor home. I was absolutely terrified
to drive it. My sister had to do that. But

(28:11):
you know, then we're five years later and I'm like, actually,
that sounds like so much fun to just have my
house right behind me, Like I park and my silverware's there,
and I know where the salt and pepper is, all
the clothes are hung up.

Speaker 2 (28:25):
I'm like, how cool is that?

Speaker 3 (28:28):
So I didn't know if I was going to be
able to make it happen because it was a terrible
year to try and buy RVs. But I found a
gal who was selling a I think it's a ninety seven,
and found a great mechanic who said, yeah, the engine's great,
but we need to do all these other things if
you're going to try and go seventy five hundred miles
in it.

Speaker 2 (28:47):
Yes, and he got it.

Speaker 3 (28:50):
Fixed up and he was like, I can't guarantee it,
but I'm pretty sure you're going to make it.

Speaker 4 (28:56):
Oh did you take your crew with you in the RV? No,
they were.

Speaker 3 (29:00):
They rode separately, so they did hotels, they had their
own crew car. Yeah, it was in the who was
in the army with you? My friend Beth, who is
a screenwriter down in LA. So you know, screenwriters never
actually have a real job. So I could call her
and say, hey, you want to spend a spend a
month on the road with me.

Speaker 1 (29:20):
She's like, sure, Well, if she's still in LA, we'll
have to bring her down to our showing because we're
in Orange County. So for our listeners and viewers, we're
about I don't know, twenty miles thirty miles.

Speaker 4 (29:30):
From from where you might have been in LA.

Speaker 3 (29:32):
So oh, I do have friends in LA that I'm
definitely gonna Yeah, we'll have to have Beth come.

Speaker 1 (29:38):
So there's a lot of vulnerability and just showing up
in real people filming raw moments.

Speaker 4 (29:45):
Why did that teach you about humanity?

Speaker 1 (29:47):
I mean, were the people who you visited were they
comfortable in that situation where they so ready because of
their lives? Were so you know, when your caregiving, you
always have to be up. You have to take care
of people. You don't get to say what you are right,
You don't get to share your feelings a lot except
on your blog. So what did that But it was

(30:09):
all that about being so vulnerable.

Speaker 3 (30:12):
I by the time I would get there, they'd already
be through their formal interview. And I think when I
went back and watched the footage, you know, because I
watched every minute of screening that we had before we
started the editing process, I.

Speaker 2 (30:29):
Could see people were nervous.

Speaker 3 (30:31):
You know, they would kind of by the end of
the formal interview, they'd kind of be a little more
settled in, a little more used to where they were
supposed to look and not you know, hit their microphone
because they went, oh, my goodness, you know the sound
guys like, ah, don't hit the mic. And then when
I would get there, you know, first we'd sit down
for a dinner and that would often be filmed, but

(30:54):
we'd also have opened a bottle of wine.

Speaker 4 (30:56):
I think people were just kind of you know, getting
used to it.

Speaker 3 (31:00):
And getting comfortable, and I know the wine helped, and
then I'm sure it did.

Speaker 2 (31:06):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (31:06):
Plus now I've shown up and we already have established
that we enjoy each other's company. So I don't know,
I've never asked those guys this question, but for me,
it just felt like a night. It just felt like
a night with people that you absolutely adore, and you've
got wine, and you've got stories, and you've got laughter,
and you've got Oh my god, that was so hard

(31:29):
for me too, It's so hard. How did we make
this through? Yeah, it was just telling our story. We
would forget, we would just forget that they were there.

Speaker 1 (31:39):
Yeah, but these are people who and it must have
been so glad to just be able to sit down
with you and relax and just share their stories and
their vulnerability and their challenges and just talk.

Speaker 3 (31:56):
Yeah. I think so, because I tell you one thing,
that one thing that I took away from it was,
you know, when people are comfortable, they have so much
to say. And none of these guys held back. We
didn't have you know, we didn't have any big sponsors
that say, hey, you can't talk about that, or we
need to run this through legal, or we got we Yeah,

(32:19):
we just write our stories and we and you know,
we set it up so that we wanted that third
camera to feel like the audience person feels like they're
they're sitting there with us. And I think it really
comes across as that because it was just the you know,
every time a screening is the audience members are like,

(32:39):
that was my story.

Speaker 4 (32:40):
That was me.

Speaker 2 (32:41):
When are you doing another one? Can I be the
next person?

Speaker 3 (32:44):
You know? I want let's just when you come back.
We're just gonna sit at a table some night and
have wine.

Speaker 4 (32:49):
Yeah, absolutely, and talk.

Speaker 2 (32:50):
Sure, Yeah, I'm sure.

Speaker 1 (32:52):
I mean I can see a filming being or not
a filming, but a showing where everybody just wants to
sit around for hours afterwards and just absolutely talk with
each other. And hopefully we can do some of that here.
So I have to tell you. So when people ask
why humor and wine in a title about dementia?

Speaker 4 (33:12):
How do you answer that?

Speaker 3 (33:16):
Because I wanted to signal right off the bat that
this was going to be a very different dementia story.

Speaker 4 (33:22):
I really liked the lyrical part.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
Of the song.

Speaker 3 (33:26):
You know, Wine Women and Song plus is written by
Loretta Lynn, So that's hella cool? Uh, And I disliked
Wine Women and Dementia. You know this is this is
we're most of us are having a glass of wine
or a cup of tea or you know, shout at
tequila if the day's gone really bad. Once our person
finally falls asleep, and most of us are women, and

(33:49):
we're caring for people with dementia. So yeah, I really
wanted to sing signal right from the start that this
was a very different type of film.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
I was singing your praises, as I do almost every
day in a conversation last week, and the person piped
up and said, oh, you know, wine and dementia and
that's a really very healthy thing.

Speaker 4 (34:11):
I said, you missed the whole point. Never mind, you
don't have to come to the movie. You miss the
whole point.

Speaker 3 (34:18):
Well, on that topic, I will say, you know, I
we spilled this.

Speaker 2 (34:24):
In twenty twenty one.

Speaker 3 (34:26):
I had picked out the logo and everything the design
before we got the RV, because we you know, put
decals all over the RV.

Speaker 4 (34:34):
That's right, Yes, you.

Speaker 3 (34:35):
Did that those studies about wine because you know, if
you might remember, not too long ago, they were saying, well,
red wine is actually really helpful and may discourage dementia,
may delay dementia.

Speaker 4 (34:49):
And we convince ourselves of that.

Speaker 3 (34:50):
Anyways, So the Suny started coming out in twenty twenty three, and.

Speaker 2 (34:56):
By then we were already of festivals.

Speaker 3 (34:58):
You know, I had paid a graph fixed house to
design a title sequence in the film and some other
sequences for like twenty five thousand dollars.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
It was like, I don't have the.

Speaker 3 (35:09):
Money to go and make this candy bars women in
dementia or you know up there women in dementia. You're
malely dose of vitamin C women in dementia. I mean
it's just no, no, no no. And the wine women
and Mencha sense says something. You're exactly right. It says
it's different. Don't expect the same old, same old. This

(35:30):
is a story. This is something you want to hear.

Speaker 1 (35:32):
You absolutely are going to want your curiosity alone, right,
is what tell me about it?

Speaker 2 (35:38):
Yeah?

Speaker 3 (35:39):
Yeah, and you know, and we're not like drunk, are
you enjoying wine and each other's company? There is there
is a part in the full film that you didn't
see where I I talk about concern about my drinking,
so you know, we do address it in some ways.
But yeah, when that when those reports started coming out,
when that new research, I was like.

Speaker 4 (36:03):
Okay, if I have to, right, if I have to,
I'll slow down.

Speaker 1 (36:08):
So was there ever a point when you almost stopped
when you said this is just too much.

Speaker 4 (36:12):
I thought it was a good idea.

Speaker 1 (36:14):
But now you're halfway around the United States or you're
on your way back home and you say, you now,
maybe I just can't do all of this.

Speaker 3 (36:23):
Uh not on the trip, not at all. That was
probably some of the best times in my life. Oddly enough, though,
when I came home and I had the footage and
it was time to, you know, put together a post
production team.

Speaker 2 (36:35):
I just hit.

Speaker 4 (36:39):
A wall. It's more like it fell into a pit.

Speaker 3 (36:43):
I think I had mom had died, and I had
put all of these things in my schedule to take
care of instead of really thinking about what that felt like.
And I think I just delayed all of those feelings
until after we got home. Really yeah, So I it

(37:06):
took me forever to finally watch the footage. It took
me two three months to start hiring somebody. Beth, my
co travel companion, she's the one who kept saying, you know,
you should start working on this, we should start getting
this sent And I was just I was in a
really bad place. And what brought you out of that?

(37:28):
What did you do to dig yourself out of that hole?
I think just starting to watch the footage and starting
to move ahead, I think too, it finally dawned on
me what I had taken on. So that was really oppressive,
like I, why did I think I could do this?

Speaker 2 (37:45):
This is I'm gonna make something terrible.

Speaker 4 (37:48):
Who's gonna watch this? You know?

Speaker 2 (37:49):
I don't know. I can be really hard on myself sometimes.
That's why I take happy bills.

Speaker 1 (37:54):
Yes, yes, yes, So did you feel that way or
did you feel like.

Speaker 4 (38:01):
This is my chance? I'm here for this reason.

Speaker 1 (38:05):
You looked at your filming, and you looked at your
time with those people, and you had been with them,
and you thought I need to tell this story.

Speaker 3 (38:13):
Yes, And it's like I thought I felt that way
all through the production, and then I had that terrible,
terrible two three months, and then I got that feeling back.
So yeah, And you know, there's still times where I'm like,
I feel like the film hasn't gone far enough. I
haven't gotten it to enough people. I'm still we're still
working hard on that. Well, we're working on it here.

Speaker 4 (38:36):
Two. I just sent you Internet.

Speaker 3 (38:38):
There's still times when I look at it, I feel
in a very harsh light and think this was the
dumbest thing I ever did. I don't know, Maybe that's
just me. I'm just think stream it's.

Speaker 1 (38:48):
Not the dumbest. I don't know what else you've done.
But it's not the dumbest you. We don't think so anyway,
We don't think it's so.

Speaker 2 (38:52):
Many dumb things. This isn't even a now.

Speaker 1 (38:55):
We all have we all have this, and we're baby bloomers.
Were around in the sixties. We did some dumb things.
Maybe you're not one of those, but we did some
dumb things. Yeah, they say, if you were here in
the sixties, you shouldn't even remember it, but hope we do.

Speaker 4 (39:10):
So were any of those people did any of them?
Were they? Did they surprise you at all?

Speaker 1 (39:16):
Or were they Did they say to you, you know,
thank you for telling our story, or thank you for
coming to see me, or thank you for choosing me.

Speaker 2 (39:27):
I don't think we needed any of that. I mean,
I think because.

Speaker 3 (39:31):
By then you were so close, right, Yeah, I certainly
said thank you for being a part of this.

Speaker 2 (39:36):
Of course, you know they've they've we've remained friends.

Speaker 3 (39:39):
So you know, Veronica and Roseanne have both come to
festival screenings around me when it's been in their area,
and then sometimes they'll go out alone if if somebody
wants a cast member or me to come to a screening. Sure,
but you know they have to pay an honorarium and
my travel expenses. If I've got a cast member closer,

(40:01):
it'll be like I would be happy to come out.
But if you'd like to save a little bit of money,
You've got Grace who also lives in Baltimore, and she
can be there, you know. So they are still very
much a part of this thing, you know. And who
else tells the story? There's so many ways to talk

(40:22):
about dimension. We all read the books and there are
stories about people, but to really where you're in their
home and you're drinking a glass of wine, eating pizza
and say, hey, I don't know what to do. I
remember the man in one of your stories just said,
we don't know what to do because we don't know
how long we have, we don't know how much money
we have. We don't know if we should if we
can afford to put her in asisted living, or if

(40:44):
we have to keep her at home, because we just
don't know.

Speaker 4 (40:46):
And I just that is me. That is me. So
who really gets to sit there and tell their story?

Speaker 3 (40:53):
And you've done that, Yeah, yeah, this is the first,
well I know, I think I know of one other
that just really focused on the caregivers. There's no professionals
in this, there's no graphs, there's no statistics.

Speaker 2 (41:07):
It's literally four.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
Caregivers by caregivers, and it's our stories. It's what a
dementia lifestyle really looks like. And it's not all tragedy
all the time. There's a lot of it, there's no
denying that, but there's also a lot of life there,
and we're doing the best we can trying to get

(41:31):
ourselves and our person through this.

Speaker 4 (41:33):
Well.

Speaker 1 (41:34):
We know that caregiving is lonely, it's quiet, and your
film made it visible. So what does it mean to
you to give visibility to the invisible, to the people
who no one sees. You know, we all go home
at night and no one sees our journey and our
struggles inside the door.

Speaker 3 (41:52):
It means the world to me. I think it meant
the world to the cast too, for people to really understand.
I have a lot of audience members after a screening
will be like, I'm going to get my sister watched this.
I'm going to get you know, my sister in law
or my brothers. You know, they want people to understand
what their life is like. And this is one of

(42:12):
the first visual representations that they've been able to see
to really help explain to people, here's what we're going through.
This is what your mom's up to. You know, this
is what my husband does, and God love him. I'm
sticking it too, sticking it out, whether you know you're

(42:34):
an advocate for somebody in memory care or a long
distance or like at twenty four seven, like we were.

Speaker 2 (42:39):
You know, I want you.

Speaker 3 (42:40):
To understand where we're at, and I'm having a hard
time telling you.

Speaker 4 (42:46):
And don't you think that.

Speaker 1 (42:50):
So many of us are caregivers but everybody doesn't know
about us as caregivers.

Speaker 4 (42:56):
You know.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
I've talked to John the other day, who's caring for
his mom and lost his dad already, and.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
I know him, I know of him, I know of
his selling.

Speaker 1 (43:07):
I would have never known he was going through that
because we live these silent stories of our family. I
don't know whether we think that it shows weakness on
our side or makes us or we think we're talking
bad about our parents when we tell these stories.

Speaker 4 (43:24):
I don't know what do you think it is? I
think it could be all of that. I don't think
there's any one answer.

Speaker 3 (43:30):
I think right now there's a generational shift. My dad
you know, my mom's dementia did not give my dad
pancreatic cancer, but caring for her meant he was so
focused on her needs. He was so exhausted for making
sure that she was getting what she needed. He didn't

(43:51):
take the time to figure out and to force doctors
to really look where, you know, find this cancer before
It was three weeks until he was dead.

Speaker 2 (44:03):
You know, he was diagnosed and dead in three weeks.

Speaker 3 (44:06):
And maybe he could have gotten you know, if he
hadn't have been so isolated, if he hadn't been so exhausted,
if he had had support, maybe he could have gotten
a diagnosis earlier and got another year or two of
his life. It's that isolation stuff. It's horrible and I
think it's kind of stereotypical, but I think older men

(44:31):
tend to be the ones who really don't want people
in their business. They don't want them to see their
their partner differently. They want to protect their partner, they
want to protect themselves.

Speaker 4 (44:44):
That was my dad's experience.

Speaker 3 (44:48):
Yeah, and you know now, like again I said, the
baby boomers, they they are fully taking on every challenge
in their in their journey, and dementia is just the
next one. And then on the other end of the spectrum,
you've got the millennials disease, why's whatever else they're called.
You know, we always tease them about their generations that

(45:10):
never shut up about anything. Well, they're not shutting up
about this either, and that's fantastic.

Speaker 4 (45:16):
People are not.

Speaker 3 (45:18):
There's a definite change from twenty sixteen when I started
to now that people are talking about this, and they're
talking very openly, they're sharing their stories, and yeah, it's
just like, no, we're not going to sit in the
dark anymore. We're not going to be called zombies. I'm
not gonna let you call my mom a zombie.

Speaker 2 (45:37):
You know, if she eats your brain's at you own
damn fault. Yep, yep.

Speaker 4 (45:41):
Absolutely.

Speaker 1 (45:42):
So what impact have you seen from the film in
the way of advocacy, community building, or even policy discussions
around dementia and caregiven caregiving? Have you had the opportunity
to have any influence in those areas?

Speaker 3 (45:57):
Definitely, all of the above, except for policy making. That's
something I would love to see the film do. I
don't know how that happens in this It was hard
enough when we had a government that was actively supporting

(46:18):
these kinds of things, and now we have a government
that isn't so I don't know if that's ever going
to be, if this will ever be a tool for that.

Speaker 1 (46:27):
Yeah, and we don't know, but some of us certainly
hope that we'll have the opportunity to be change makers.
I can tell you that, and hopefully that'll be a
discussion for a future day. What do you hope people
walk away with after they've seen your movie?

Speaker 3 (46:43):
Oh, very top of mind is that they feel celebrated
and that they understand that community is the most important
thing you can give yourself on this journey. And if
your relatives and if your friends aren't showing up, screw them.
Just you don't have time for that anymore. Get on
a forum, get a support group, whether online or in person.

(47:06):
Go to a memory cafe. Look around in your local newspaper.
What events are happening that maybe really dementia friendly. You
just need to meet people. Go to a senior center
and put up a notice saying, hey, is anybody else
taking care of their person? You want to You want
to get together and see if we can, like maybe
have a cup of coffee somewhere, or a sweet treat

(47:28):
or just something short, simple. Let's get together and not
be so alone. Let's let's get our person some socialization
and let's be able to talk. I mean, I just
I can't even take that excuse that well, you know,
there's nobody out here.

Speaker 2 (47:42):
I feel so isolated.

Speaker 3 (47:43):
It's like you've got the internet now, and we've all
seen what covid. What covid gave us is that we
can find friends online.

Speaker 1 (47:51):
Yes, absolutely, So what do you do with all the
hundreds of people who reach out to you? You must
have so many people respond to you with either your
blog or the unline. They see one of your interviews
and or they see your movie and they must want
to talk to you. Do you connect them with other
people in their area or what do you do? Because
I'm sure you must want, you must have a heart
for these people that you wish you could help everybody.

Speaker 3 (48:13):
I respond to everybody who connect who contacts me. A
lot of times people were asking for suggestions or tips
or recommendations. What did you do a lot of times
it's just feedback and I love that and they'll tell
me their stories. When it comes to people wanting caregiver advice,
I'm very clear that I am not an expert on caregiving.

(48:37):
What I am is an expert on getting my mom
through dementia, and I will, you know.

Speaker 2 (48:43):
Say, hey, have you looked at any cheapest snow videos?

Speaker 3 (48:46):
You know she's got a whole learning package, but you
can also just start with going to some of her
YouTube and see if what you're going through right now
you and your person is covered, and see if she's
got things that you can incorporate. I'm happy to give suggestions.
I'm happy to tell people what we did if we
had similar experiences. And I'm also happy to say, but

(49:08):
you know what, take what you can from this. It
may not work for your person, or like a lot
of households, it may only work for a month or
two and then you got to come up with a
whole new solution. Don't worry, we all have to do it,
but you know, try try everything. Be as creative as
possible in this journey. Don't listen to people who give

(49:31):
you does and don't take them as suggestions recommendations, but
also understand that sometimes you and your person just need
to try things because you'd be surprised at what's going
to work, you know.

Speaker 1 (49:44):
And isn't it important to emphasize that every dementia case
is different, right, And I mean there's a lot of similarities,
but you're in a different house, you have a different family,
you have a different family upbringing, added food towards this
end in spaces.

Speaker 2 (50:02):
All of that I agree to some extent.

Speaker 4 (50:05):
I get frustrated with that.

Speaker 3 (50:06):
Term because every time I heard it in our journey,
it usually came from a medical professional who just didn't
have an answer. Oh yeah, well, and so that so
it kind of gets my hackles up. One thing I
like people to know is that, yes, every journey is
going to be different, but there are so many similarities too.

(50:27):
And on the caregiver side, we're all going to feel guilt.
We're all going to want to run away.

Speaker 4 (50:31):
At some point.

Speaker 3 (50:32):
We're all going to say, is this time to put
them into you know something else? Is this the time
I move home? Is this the time they move in
with me? Is this the time you know? It's there's
very very similar things that are going to happen, both
within us and outside of us. A lot of people
are going to go through their age stage. Not everybody,
but it would have been nice if somebody told me

(50:55):
that was an option.

Speaker 4 (50:56):
Before mom hit it, you know.

Speaker 1 (50:59):
And I think this is one of those sections of
parts of life segments where and we say this often
in our senior world, is that we don't know what
we don't know, right, And those are the questions and
the scenarios that I heard from the people when I
watched your film.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
And that's so funny too.

Speaker 3 (51:19):
The first time I saw the film without like we
were still cutting it down. I think it was like
almost two and a half hours, so we had a
full hour to get off out of it.

Speaker 4 (51:28):
But the first time I watched it all.

Speaker 3 (51:30):
Put together, not just watching separate scenes, I was like,
oh my god, I made the film I wish I
would have seen in twenty sixteen, because it has so
many it just kind of was a roadmap for what's
potentially on the horizon. I'm like, wow, I felt kind
of I giggled about that. It's like, oh, subliminally I

(51:52):
made the thing I wish I would have had.

Speaker 1 (51:54):
Yeah, Or for those of us who are in the
middle of it now, it's like, oh my gosh, yeah,
that to me, right, I didn't know that it's okay
to be in that situation, right, I didn't know that
it's okay to giggle. I didn't know that, it's okay
to worry about many I didn't know all these things.
So I think that's pretty strong. Unfortunately, we're close to
the end, but I do want to ask, how can

(52:15):
people see your film?

Speaker 3 (52:16):
Of course, absolutely so we have the full theatrical feature
is currently just in person screenings, and we have that
information on our website. So join our newsletter on the
website Winewomenandmentia dot com and you'll get information about that.
We have a fifty six minute version on PBS and

(52:39):
it's airing across the country. You have to contact your
local station to find out if it's in your area,
and then every once in a while I get some
notification where it's going to be playing. So I'm actually
going to put on the website in the next week
through July. I know through July where it's playing, so
I'll have that up there. So that's the fifty six

(53:01):
minute version and it's still absolutely lovely, but it's that
full length feature that you're like, wow, But there's.

Speaker 4 (53:10):
Also a ninety minute version, isn't there. That's it. Yeah,
that's the theatrical version right right, and our listeners and
our viewers.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
We will be bringing it to Orange County and we
have a few things we're talking. I shouldn't say anything
about dates or whatever, but we will be bringing to Orange County.
We've got a lot of things in place now. We
just need the approval and the travel schedule from the
producer right here, and we will definitely have Kitty with us.
We won't do it unless we can. That's definitely that

(53:37):
part of our show. So let's just thank you so
much for your time today. You're amazing. I'm so glad
that you're here. I'm so glad that I met you
in Florida, and I'm so glad that you've done this
for all of us who are just like you.

Speaker 4 (53:50):
And going through this journey. We know that you didn't
just make a film.

Speaker 1 (53:54):
You made a movement built on courage, connection, and even
a little bit of Cabernet. Jernie reminds us all that
grief doesn't always look like silence, that it can be
like story shared around the kitchen table in an RV
and sometimes an RV parked in front of a stranger
about to be friends home. So we want all of

(54:14):
our caregivers to know that you're not alone. You're not invisible,
You're not going through this journey by ourself. So watch wine,
women and dementia. Let us know who you are and
we'll be sure to inform you when it's in showing
in a theater near you, and when Kitty will be
with us so you can meet her in person. I'm
Valerie van Desover and this is Always Ageless, where we

(54:35):
honor wisdom, celebrate life's second acts, and never stop believing in.

Speaker 4 (54:40):
The power of real stories.

Speaker 1 (54:41):
Until next time, stay curious, stay compassionate, and stay always ageless.

Speaker 2 (54:46):
Thank you.