Making Memories
The memories you create together within your family bind your family members to each other and will keep you close in the future. This will be true even if a time comes when your child is no longer physically with you.
Your Team:
A pediatric health care professional who works with children and families to help them cope with illness, injury and other medical experiences.
A specialist whose aim is to improve the quality of life of their patients over the course of their illness regardless of stage, by relieving pain and other symptoms of that illness.
A child-life specialist is particularly skilled at this and can work with siblings, if any, to create and preserve special memories for your child and family. A palliative care clinician can be a good source of memory-making ideas and activities.
Thinking of a future without your child may seem impossible. Be assured: some of the activities you are enjoying together now, whether common or special, will become ways of maintaining feelings of connection sometime later. These activities also are a way to help siblings, if there are any, attach to a child they may fondly remember or, if they are very young, may not otherwise remember very clearly.
Making memories doesn’t have to be complicated or formal. Some examples are:
- Celebrating holidays
- Inventing special days just for fun
- Watching a favorite sports event or team together
- Discovering and reading a favorite book—repeatedly, if necessary
- Singing and playing instruments together, or listening to music together
- Making art or keepsakes to give to each other, family members and friends
- Taking and looking at photographs
- Creating a “mood board” filled with images of people, places and things you have enjoyed together
– Janessa, parent of Alex
Related Resources
-
Every time we achieved an idea we wanted to pursue, it gave us more strength to do the next one. The memory of what you were able to achieve is what we actually remember.video
-
When he asks to do something, you just want to move heaven and earth to make it happen.video
-
Finding Accessibility and Inclusion AbroadBLOG
-
What does a “good day” look like? Emma goes to VOTE!video
-
The Weight of the Family OutingBLOG
-
You need to make memories to have a whole life with your child.video