The Ranchers

No road map, no road markers, and no role models…

It was 1998. We were embarking on an adventure in life for which we had no road map, no road markers, and no role models for living well with dementia. Our mantra was, “It’s about dignity.” We were at the intersection of “hope” and “hopelessness.” We chose “hope.” The title of one of our many songbooks being Sing the Journey, that is what we did. We sang the journey.

We wore many hats – among them our Western hats which seemed most befitting. Dad and Mother had served as management partners for almost three decades on the large farm adjacent to the property where we were now returning. We were separated from the woods on the old farm property by a fence which he had built many years before. Thus, our modest duplex immediately earned the whimsical title, “The Ranch” and we became “The Ranchers.”  It was a time for hope and, in many ways, a new beginning.

About Hope

What did “hope” mean as we began a new chapter at the ranch?

The best definition to describe the ranchers upon relocating to our small ranch house together was found in Dementia Beyond Disease – Enhancing Well-Being by G. Allen Power, MD.

“Hope . . . it’s an orientation of the spirit. . . . Hope is definitely not the same thing as optimism. It is not the conviction that something will turn out well but the certainty that something makes sense, regardless of how it turns out. . . . life is too precious a thing to permit its devaluation by living pointlessly, emptily, without meaning, without love, and, finally, without hope.” – Vaclav Havel