More than two dozen residents of a Kentucky nursing home are rocking new babies to sleep each day, embracing a gift of love any parent can appreciate. Volunteer Sandy Cambron delivered 28 lifelike dolls and four plush puppies to memory-impaired residents at Kentucky’s Park Terrace Health Campus in Louisville, KY, this Valentine’s Day.
Cambron’s mother-in-law, Pearl, died of Alzheimer’s disease in 2008, and Cambron never forgot how much Pearl loved caring for a “baby” in her final months. The dolls struck a chord with Terrace Health residents and followers around the world, who read about the baby-cuddling project online.
Photos captured many of the residents smiling as they clutched at swaddling blankets and plastic baby bottles. One woman chose a girl doll, then carefully considered names before settling on “Amber.”
“You keep her here, and she’s gonna keep you company,” Cambron tells the resident in a video.
“We have been simply overwhelmed by the positive response we’ve received,” Park Terrace noted on its Facebook page, a few days after the delivery was coordinated by life enrichment director Susan Crider. Cambron and her husband, Wayne, have launched a GoFundMe effort to purchase more babies for other facilities in their region
From the April 01, 2018 Issue of McKnight's Long-Term Care News
