Baby dolls give Alzheimer’s patients sense of self
Almost 15 years ago, Sandy Cambron noticed her mother-in-law, Pearl Walker, had become withdrawn and quiet after she moved into a nursing home for Alzheimer’s patients in Shepherdsville, Kentucky.
“We tried everything — photo albums, old stories — but nothing worked,” she said. “It was really hard on everyone to see how she had changed.”
Then one day while Cambron was in a toy store, she had an idea: Why not give Pearl a baby doll so she could feel as if she were caring for something again? While she was at it, why not give one to all the other care center residents?
The plan worked. As soon as Cambron gave Pearl the doll, wrapped in a soft pink blanket, her mother-inlaw’s face lit up.
“She started talking again and she never went anywhere without that baby,” said Cambron. “She took ‘baby’ to the dining room with her and slept with her in her arms every night. When she passed away a year later, we even buried her with that well-loved baby doll.”
In the following decade, Cambron and her husband, Wayne Cambron, continued to buy dozens of dolls in Pearl’s memory, dressing them in cute footie pajamas and handing them out to residents of care centers near their home in Shepherdsville every Christmas, instead of giving gifts to each other.
Now, Pearl’s Memory Babies is a nonprofit that has donated more than 300 dolls to seniors with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia at nursing homes throughout western Kentucky and southern Indiana since February 2018.
The Cambrons started the charity with help from Shannon Gray Blair, a coworker at the optometry store and clinic where Sandy Cambron once worked.
“When Sandy offered to give a doll to my mom, who had Alzheimer’s, I knew this was something I wanted to be a part of,” said Blair, 47.
“Just like that, we had a new hobby,” said Cambron, 71, whose home has been overtaken with baby dolls, infant clothing, fleece blankets and diapers, along with stuffed “therapy” animals for seniors who once owned pets and who might prefer to have a dog or cat.
With almost $15,000 donated to the cause through Gofundme, Cambron, who is now retired, spends a lot of time shopping for dolls, onesies and baby caps.
“I had no idea that it would take off like this. It’s a simple idea, but it works,” she said. “Some people cry when you hand them their baby. Even though we don’t know exactly what they’re thinking, you can tell that the doll has helped bring back some kind of nice memory.”
When Alzheimer’s patients hold their dolls close, they receive therapy and comfort in a way that cannot be measured, said Elise Hinchman of Sayre Christian Village, a nonprofit retirement community in Lexington, Kentucky.