This coming Monday, May 25, is Memorial Day, so this week’s 49-minute nondenominational worship service for seniors — now on YouTube — focuses on the theme of sacrifice. As usual, the service is suitable for older adults with Alzheimer’s and other dementias, especially those who are still in social isolation because of covid-19.

This Memorial Day service includes:

• Recognition of and thanks for our servicemen and servicewomen, past and present. Many of our current seniors served in the Armed Forces, and this is the time to thank them! If you watch this worship service with a group of older adults, including those with dementia, I encourage you to pause the video when I list the different armed service branches. Get a show of hands to find out which of your residents served in which branch.
• A short history of Memorial Day (originally known as Decoration Day).
• Lots of hymn sing-alongs.
• A short homily on the theme of sacrifice — with a focus on the loving and willing sacrifice of Jesus for our sake.
• A well-known (to elders) Memorial Day poem, “In Flanders Fields,” written in 1915 (in the past, I’ve been surprised when seniors recite this poem along with me).
• The Prayer of St. Francis.

If you’d like to include an activity for Memorial Day, make red “Remembrance” poppies. (Some elders may even remember when wearing red poppies was common for Memorial Day.) If you have the materials ready, I think this activity would be great for seniors.

P.S. If you know anything about making videos, would you please let me know?? I’ve been using iMovie but this week it was a nightmare … I barely got this one done

Image by PublicDomainPictures from Pixabay