You might wish to make a video or photo montage or slide show to project on a wall for yourself, your family with you, or your family overseas, at work, or in hospital.
The easiest picture to start with is a flag. Download a flag from Wikipedia. Or find an old baseball hat or tee-shirt.
Next add some human interest.
I turned family photos and interviews into a book for my neighbours, at their request.
A video from earlier times can also be comforting for those in care homes suffering from confusion due to the onset of dementia. A complex in the USA has set up an imitation of the old days, which the residents can still remember clearly. So instead of being planted in this year with new repainted changed surroundings, which do not get fixed in their 'full' brain, the new surroundings match the memories they still have.
https://glenner.org/town-square/
Dementia Nostalgia villages
Chula Vista, California, town square, was the pioneer. This has been copied elsewhere in the USA and in the Netherlands and in the UK, including Scotland.
If there's none near you, photos of museums and toy museums might provide nostalgic photos. For example, in London, England, the Geffrye museum has rooms from various eras. You might also find old items in the garage or attic.
First I shall tell you how I wanted to make a video for my father who was in hospital. Then I shall tell you how to do it.
Time Travel
It's easy to find items from different eras, pop groups, politicians, clothes. For example, the Seventies in Wikipedia immediately supplies me with photos of Bruce Lee (statue in Hong Kong) and Margaret Thatcher in the UK.
Hospital to Home?
When my father was dying in hospital he wanted to come home. It was not practical. For several reasons.
He was so frail he needed a driver and two people to wheel a stretcher. We needed to arrange an ambulance to transport him. He was no longer eating and could not swallow so i no longer had to worry about food or drink. He might have needed a change of bedding and somebody to lift him or roll him to change the sheets.
He was likely to die en route. This would be pointless for him, distressing for us and the ambulance crew, costly for the health service or insurance or us.
If he died at home we would have a decomposing body possibly oozing blood and body fluids creating a smell so you had to shut off the room until the undertakers arrived.
His body fluids and MRSA or clostridium difficile would infect the home and reinfect him or infect other residents.
We might need to pay for a deep clean or decontamination.
We would associate the bedroom with his dead body.
I was trying to organize his return home and while I was telling him so, he sat up to try and hear but the strain was too much and he died.
Looking back, I can see that he did not want to be in hospital (Watford hospital). You had to pay for the TV which was delivered but not turned on. Neither the patient nor I nor any or the nurses knew how to operate the TV so it was never turned on.
His bed was facing a painting of a church surrounded by gravestones. The last thing you want in a hospital's ward is a picture of gravestones. It is not encouraging for the nursing staff, the patient nor visitors.
Happy Hospital Pictures
Cartoons
Smiling nurse.
Smiling doctor with best bedside manner.
Hospital shop with flowers and gifts.
Be Prepared
At the time I thought of bringing in a photo from home, or photographing his home and printing it out. The time to prepare photos and videos for a hospital patient is a year or two earlier, when you don't need it in a hurry, and are not stressed. It can be a fun project.
PERSONAL STORY
You can make a print on demand book through Lulu.com
Then load up the photos into a video.
WEDDINGS
Weddings overseas in 2020 can include the couple marrying, their parents overseas.
I went to a wedding in Singapore at least ten years ago. The couple had three wedding ceremonies and receptions. In both parents' countries they held a religious ceremony.
Then in Singapore they held a secular ceremony and projected photos and videos of the other ceremonies with their parents onto huge white walls.
LANDMARKS / Maps
Wikipedia has maps and flags. These can be used on the title page or as a small footnote or an overlay.
The title can show either the country, city, or village or family home.
PATTERN & DESIGN
Make a clock face of pictures - places where you lived or worked or holidayed.
Or a chequerboard of photos of places or people.
Signposts and Humour
Add signposts. Add humour. You can find humorous signposts. In every country the local wildlife can be a source of amusement and amazement. Or the wildlife of another country can be a source of amusement and amazement.
Signposts of Transport
Signposts of transport can illustrate how you travelled.
Signposts can introduce your favourite hobby. Such as trains,
Or cycling.
Signposts can show your work, as a train driver, truck driver, ticket inspector, whatever.
MUSIC
Add music.
National anthems.
Tunes from each decade.
Wedding march.
1 Title
Start the Video with the time and place and people.
group photo? Or a series so you can cut out the deceased?
For a widower, will you want to show only his beloved partner?
Or will you want her left out and only the people who are alive and speaking and sending messages.
Just in case one of the grandparents dies before the other, you might want a loving message, or even just a joking message.
If you are religious, you might want both to recite a favourite prayer, slowly and calmly.
You might want season flowers, a mountain you visited, a lake, a walk, a pet, animals, fish, cats or dogs.
PETS, ANIMALS & WILDLIFE?
Include happy pictures of pets, animals, birds, wildlife.
You could mix:
Tourist board and promotional photos
Signposts
Pictures from the old days.
Pictures of how old the grandchildren think you are.
Funny Photos
Birds
Pictures from the internet of local wildlife, and garden birds. Xmas cards.
Family Photographers
Photos by recipients of the video (by grandparents).
Photos of grandparents.
Friends, Neighbours and Colleagues
Search the media such as Facebook.
Pets
No animals if the recipient hates cats or dogs.
But lots of funny photos of local wildlife and domesticated animals.
Camels. I rode a camel to Petra, in Jordan. Pictures can help you recall cou. I also saw a camel galloping towards our coach on the motorway. A Bedouin asked me to look at the horizon and tell him how many camels I could see. None. He assured me that he could see several. he said that if you spent your days scanning the horizon, your eyes got used to focusing on the distance.
You might keep the pictures separate, either as photos, not part of a video. but a separate video clip. That makes it easier to can edit them out later. You might also take a photo of parts of a movie, still the movie and photograph with a camera or do a screen shot.
For example:
Title - Smith Family Summer Holiday In Florida
Florida signpost/Florida holiday brochure
Car, plane or train, family members in seats
Family home or holiday condo or hotel
Breakfast at hotel
Family around table
Lunch
Dinner
Excursion
Photo album of India
People From A Photo Album
Wedding photos
Grandchild paying compliment (video of child looking at album, 'Granny - you were such a pretty bride!'
'Grand-dad, were you really married more than 40 years?'
Family members playing sports, musical instruments, in driving seat of car, on static motorbike or bike, holding surf board on beach
Family wedding photos
Family certificates
Family blowing kisses
Swimming pool
Compliment several generations doing the same work or having similar achievements.
No Photo Album
Create your own. Album cover. Make a title page.
Have the family gather around the video screen.
Have them pointing at photos of landmarks or souvenirs.
Looking Backwards Or Forwards To Achievements
When the funeral officiant came to interview the family about a deceased elder members, we had two of his children who had achieved success academically. One was a university lecturer. The other a university professor. But the deceased had no degree, no achievements. I was quite despondent about what the officiant would be able to say. Would he say that poor Dad had never had the opportunities. Must have been jealous. Must have felt keenly what he had missed?
No. The officiant put a positive spin on events. He assumed the best. He said father had had no opportunities to get a degree. How proud he must have been when both his sons achieved such success.
You can do the same in reverse. Descendants not so good? Say how thrilled they were with their illustrious ancestors.
Grandparents with no education nor profession outclassed by achievements of children or grandchildren? Say how proud grandparents were to have parented such a line of illustrious high achieving pioneer descendants.
Happy Surroundings
What's your idea of heaven? What is your idea of a peaceful death? To be surrounded by loved ones. If not the living, the photos and videos of them when they were alive, at their happiest times.
Music
If you cannot be by the bedside all the time, you can play soothing music.
The Last Laugh
The last laugh could be the funny things they said. Or their favourite joke. Or a cartoon of members of the family.
Useful Websites
https://www.today.com/health/dementia-day-care-looks-1950s-stimulate-patients-brains-t126727
https://glenner.org/town-square/
https://www.theguardian.com/society/shortcuts/2018/mar/12/life-dementia-village-development-kent-hogeweyk
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/the-power-of-memory-nursing-home-recreates-old-streets-to-help-9093606
https://www.citylab.com/design/2018/09/why-a-memory-town-is-coming-to-your-local-strip-mall/569905/
https://techcrunch.com/2017/07/16/apple-aims-to-get-an-ipad-in-the-hands-of-every-hospital-patient/
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8238969/Stark-guide-deathbed-etiquette-released-bid-aid-families-hit-coronavirus.html
https://www.artofdyingwell.org/caring-for-the-dying/deathbed-etiquette/deathbed-etiquette-and-the-coronavirus-covid-19/
https://www.artofdyingwell.org/how-deathbed-etiquette-is-changing-as-we-cope-with-the-coronavirus-covid-19-pandemic/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locked-in_syndrome
Author, Author! About the Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker. (Not related to the actress.) See books and profiles on Lulu.com and Amazon, such as Wedding Speeches & Toasts, Quick Quotations, Who Said What When. Also watch videos on YouTube.
See other posts on singers and statues and languages and destinations.
Please share links to your favourite posts.
