A new mom shared a positive take on her own mother’s heartbreaking Alzheimer’s battle with a series of videos of her lighting up each time she meets her baby granddaughter for the “first time ever.”
Kate DeVar, 30, from Greenville, South Carolina, first started noticing symptoms of her mom Lorraine’s Alzheimer’s in 2008, before Lorraine later started having issues speaking.
Lorraine, 63, began to struggle to complete full sentences and very rarely contacted Kate about major life events, causing her to be later diagnosed with aphasia, a disorder impacting communication.
This inability to speak is commonly paired with Alzheimer’s, and despite Lorraine’s condition worsening, she tried her best to explain to her daughter she hoped Kate would one day have a baby of her own.
After Kate accepted her mom’s condition was likely Alzheimer’s, Lorraine was officially diagnosed, and Kate’s stepdad – Lorraine’s primary caregiver – was forced to move her to a memory home in 2021.
Then, in 2023, and with the baby her mom had always dreamed of, Kate, whose name Lorraine doesn’t remember, regularly pays her mother a visit with daughter Penny, who is seven months old.
When with her mother, Lorraine is often in her own world, Kate said – but when Penny makes a loud noise, Lorraine comes back to reality, lighting up at her baby granddaughter.
Lorraine will then head over to see Penny in the room, Kate added, remembering basic interactions, like saying, “That’s a good girl,” “Do you like me,” or “Can you say, Ma Ma.”
Each meeting with Penny is like a first-ever meeting for Lorraine, and Kate has shared wholesome clips of these moments online, hoping to bring awareness to the condition.
Kate said: “Every time I bring my baby to her memory home, she reacts to Penny as if she is meeting her for the first time.
“I brought Penny to the memory home when she was three weeks old – mom showed no interest because Penny was so small and slept the entire time.
“But over time, Penny has become more animated and my mom absolutely lights up at her presence.
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“Watching them be completely present and still with each other makes everything else in life seem so secondary.
“I witness my baby changing by the day, and my mom is also shifting so quickly but to the opposite effect.
“I’m constantly surrounded by intense development and withering, it’s the most unique experience.
“The disease takes and takes, but I’m holding on to these moments.”
