We made quite an event of St. Patrick’s Day when I was growing up.  We didn’t have Irish family connections, except possibly way back in our genealogy.  But the hired man on our farm celebrated this holiday.

We children always checked to see if Dan had the little green bow on his work cap when he came in for breakfast that morning.  He was more like a member of our family, a grandfather figure for us children, even though he didn’t live at our home. 

He took his meals with us, and Mother prepared corned beef and cabbage for dinner, the large meal of the day on a farm.  If she didn’t have corned beef, she cooked a ham with potatoes, cabbage and carrots for St. Patrick’s Day.

When Mother was in the nursing home and someone mentioned they were having corned beef and cabbage for St. Patrick’s Day, she asked, “Did they make enough for Dan?”

Even though her memories were garbled, some glimmer of the past on our farm came through and was associated with that day.

Encourage your family member to elaborate on memories.  Write them down or record them so you will have them for your family history.  Also, they will remind you that even though someone has Alzheimer’s disease, some of those memories linger and can be shared.