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Myrna Norman is a member of the CDLRN Community Advisory Committee and is involved in numerous dementia initiatives, including leading the Purple Angels dementia support group near her home in Maple Ridge, British Columbia, and across the country, including involvement in the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA) Engagement of People with Lived Experience of Dementia (EPLED) group.
Myrna is a passionate advocate for empowerment and finding hope and joy following a dementia diagnosis. This inspiring poem illustrates how Myrna progressed to feeling hopeful and empowered as she came to terms with a dementia diagnosis:
My Dementia Speaks, by Myrna Norman
Advocating dementia taught me lessons, embracing joy and happiness without questions.
Being creative in ways that stimulate my brain, calls for nutrients that spark neurons and share jubilation.
It’s my responsibility to be happy.
My job to find joy and to find reasons to smile.
I cannot accept the myth that happiness, joy, contentment, and connections are not deserved because of a diagnosis of dementia.
The committee of jerks with a home in my brain, keeps trying to make the case that it’s over, to curl up, to live in darkness, to choose inactivity, dullness, and wait to die.
Get out of my head you messenger of doom!
I have the right and the responsibility to use my choice of ambivalence, or of certainty, of choice, of living well and being productive.
Finding a spark of life, enabling acceptance, and choosing to live with full throated delight.
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