RIGHT: Members and staff of Friends Club not only enjoy watching the game show “Jeopardy,” but also playing their own version of it at meetings. OPPOSITE PAGE: Friends Club members work with visiting artists a dance group during a movement class.
terrifies you,” she says. “At my first support group meeting, I thought, ‘I don’t want to be here and see what lies further down this road.’ But I’ve learned that whatever I have to deal with, someone in the room has already dealt with.” Roz Kleeman, whose 89-year-old husband recently left Friends Club, still attends the caregiver support group. “At your first meeting you can’t imagine talking so openly about your problems,” she says. “By the second meeting you’re joining in with things you didn’t think you could ever say, ‘My husband does this. Oh, yours does too. How did you solve it?’” The Rockville resident credits the group with helping her accept her husband’s illness.“Initially you’re kind of em-
barrassed about dementia. You may be afraid to go out to dinner with your husband and friends. One of the things the support group helped me with is being able to say, ‘My husband has dementia
and I know you’ll understand if you have to repeat something,’” Kleeman says. Recognizing that Alzheimer’s is a progressive disease and that the men in their lives eventually will leave Friends Club,
the women take monthly field trips, visiting facilities with different levels of care. “It’s important to have a sense of what is out there, whether or not you think you might use it,” says Williamson. Leaving Friends Club is never easy— not for the men, their caregivers or Mann. “I become very attached to these people. But when the men are no longer physically able to take part or their mental faculties have shut down to the point they are no longer able to enjoy things, it’s time for them to go to the next level of care where medical resources are available,” says Mann. “I always have to give myself the talk about how it’s what’s best for them and not what’s best for me.” “GayLynn is such a softie,” says Williamson. “But when that day comes and she says she doesn’t think he should be coming, it breaks your heart because there’s not much after that.” Calling her and her husband’s time in Friends Club “a huge gift,” Hague is convinced she will retain ties with the families she has come to know. “We’re all traveling this road somewhat together. It’s a difficult journey, but one that would’ve been much more painful without Friends Club.”
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May 2012 | Gazette SENIORS 17