STORY AND PHOTO BY KAREN BOSSICK
“Was I Your Mother?”
That’s the question many have heard from aging parents suffering from Alzheimer’s or other forms of dementia.
Hailey resident Gini Ballou’s mother started a health care center in New York that cared for 180,000 clients a year. But when she developed Alzheimer’s she was limited to playing with My Little Pony games and toys.
It spurred Gini Ballou and her husband Jeff to develop memory stimulating puzzles for grownups after her mother developed Alzheimer’s.
Gini Ballou shared the success, misses and humor of caring for a parent with Alzheimer’s during the 2018 TEDxSunValley. And she will recount her experiences again during a free talk at 6 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 10, at Ketchum’s Community Library.
A panel discussion moderated by Sun Valley Institute’s Aimee Christensen will follow. It will feature local practitioners who deal with brain health and aging issues, such as Adrean Cavener, Maria Maricich, Jovita Pina and Joanne Cox.