Gertrude “Trudy” Callahan has been living in San Antonio for decades – but lately, dementia has been pulling her somewhere else.
“Within the last couple years she has been asking to go ‘home’ and when I told her she was home she would say ‘well, that’s nice of you to say but I need to go home,'” her daughter, Ellen Jacobs, said.
The “home” Trudy meant wasn’t Texas. It was the house where she was born in 1932 – a family home that still stands in Oberlauringen, Germany.
So this Christmas, her family found a way to bring that place to her.
During the family’s annual holiday celebration at their home in San Antonio – on Christmas Eve, after a classic German meal of Rouladen – Ellen presented Trudy with the first gift of the night: a custom blanket printed with an image of the farmhouse from her childhood.
Trudy’s granddaughter, Sarah Jacobs, exclusively told Happilynews.com: “Oma was getting sleepy, so Aunt Ellen said she had one special gift she needed to open first.”
Sarah pulled out her phone to record – and says she’s grateful she did.
“I start recording and am so grateful I did, because as soon as Oma saw the blanket, she lit up brighter than we’ve seen her in years,” she said.
As the blanket unfolded, Trudy immediately recognized the house.
“She saw her childhood home in Germany, and exclaimed ‘I want to go right in!'” Sarah said.
For the family, it was a rare moment of joy – the kind that lands hard when you’re watching someone you love slip away in small pieces.
“It felt like actual Chrismtas magic,” Sarah said. “We were all brought to tears.”
“She lit up like she was just a girl again; I’ve never seen her so excited,” she added. “You never know when you might be celebrating together for the last time, but this moment gave us all something we’ll treasure for the rest of our lives.”
When “home” started meaning something else
Trudy was born Gertraude Magdalene Schmidt in 1932 in the Oberlauringen home that now appears on the blanket – a house that “remains in our family to this day,” her granddaughter, Sarah Jacobs, said.
Growing up during World War II, she “experienced both American and German soldiers staying at their house,” Sarah said, and it was there that Trudy was inspired to learn English “because he wanted her to be able to translate.”
She later trained as a nurse and emigrated to the United States in November 1956, where she worked as a nursing aide in Milwaukee before building a life and raising a family.
By 1979, the family moved to the home we still have today in San Antonio, Texas – the place Trudy has called home for decades, even as dementia now pulls her thoughts back to the one she grew up in.
Years later, as dementia began to “creep in,” Trudy’s family noticed the pattern that would define the gift idea: she kept asking to go home – and she wasn’t talking about the home she was standing in.
“I realized she meant Oberlauringen when I asked her where she lived,” Ellen said.
Ellen, who “specializes in creating custom items,” already had a sense of what might reach her mom in a way explanations couldn’t.
“There is a watercolor image hanging in her bedroom that someone created a long time ago, so I used that image instead of a photo,” she said.
Rather than buying something off the shelf, Ellen used a printing company she works with to turn that image into a blanket – something her mother could touch, hold, and wrap around herself.
The moment it landed
For Sarah, being there wasn’t just a family visit – it was about personal history coming full circle.
In 2009, when Sarah’s father Frank became ill, Trudy took both him and Sarah into her home.
And later, after Sarah had moved out, Ellen moved in to help care for Trudy as her memory faded.
“Trudy’s physical health is still quite strong, and her spirit is still alive, despite her memory fading,” Sarah said. “We are grateful that she is able to remain at our family home in San Antonio, under the incredible care of her daughter, Ellen.”
So when Trudy opened the blanket and lit up, it hit everyone in the room.
“We were all brought to tears,” Sarah said.
And for Sarah, it came with a bittersweet thought – the idea that her grandmother built a home in Texas that meant everything to their family, even if Trudy’s mind keeps returning to the one in Germany.
“I wish she could understand that she created a home for us that means as much to our family as her home in Germany means to her – I’m eternally grateful for that,” Sarah said.
Since receiving it, the blanket has become part of Trudy’s daily routine – and the family says she treats it like something precious.
“Since receiving the blanket, Oma has happily laid with it on her bed every day, and if my aunt tries moving it at all, Oma smooths it back out so she can see every detail,” Sarah said.
She hopes the story helps other families looking for ways to reach someone living with dementia – not by correcting them, but by meeting them where their mind is.
“I hope that people are inspired to bring their loved ones ‘home’ literally,” Sarah said. “Many comments came from those who have cared for loved ones with dementia saying this was the perfect gift for anyone who misses home – but home is more than a place, it’s a feeling of safety and love.”
“It’s the feeling my Oma has when she remembers her life in Germany, and the feeling I have when I remember my life growing up with her,” she added.
Ellen says the experience has also changed what she wants to create for others.
“My mom used to crochet blankets for us that made us so happy, and now this is something I really want to be able to do for other caregivers and their loved ones – often referred to as ‘LOWD’ or Loved one with dementia,” she said.
And for a family watching dementia take memories piece by piece, that one moment – a familiar house appearing in fabric and color – gave them something simple, physical, and lasting: a way to bring “home” a little closer.
