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Puzzles To Remember

PUZZLES TO REMEMBER is a 501(c)3 organization that provides puzzles to nursing homes, veterans facilities, and other facilities that care for Alzheimer's and dementia patients. Puzzles To Remember was founded in 2008 by Max Wallack, who recognized the calming effect of puzzles and many other benefits on people suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. Max graduated from Boston University, Summa Cum Laude, in 2015, and from Harvard Medical School in 2020.

Beginning in 2020, Hailey Richman is the Executive Director of PuzzlesToRemember. Since 2011, Hailey has been distributing puzzles to nursing facilities around the globe. Hailey also spends time doing the puzzles with nursing home residents. She always brightens their days.  Hailey is also the founder of KidCaregivers.com, where she provides advice for children dealing with dementia in their family members. Hailey has begun a program called PuzzleTime which involves volunteer students going to nursing facilities and doing puzzles with their residents. Max serves as a mentor to the KidCaregivers program.

If you have puzzles that you would like to donate, please contact us at Puzzles2Remember@gmail.com and we will find a location near you where you can bring your puzzles. We can also provide you with a donation letter so that you can claim the value of your puzzles as a tax deduction.

To see a short video from WCVB Ch. 5 "BOSTON STRONG" about Max's efforts on behalf of Alzheimer's patients, click here.

To see a short video about Hailey's Puzzle Time Program, click here.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

"A Pocket Guide for the Alzheimer's Caregiver" by Daniel C. Potts, M.D. and Ellen Woodward Potts

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By Max Wallack
Puzzles to Remember

A few weeks ago I received A Pocket Guide for the Alzheimer’s Caregiver by Daniel C. Potts, M.D. and Ellen Woodward Potts. I finally had the opportunity to read this wonderful book.

It is a superb introductory manual that explains Alzheimer’s disease to care partners and families who are learning that their loved one has this disease.

These new care partners have so many questions.

There are many questions that care partners may be reluctant or embarrassed to ask. There may be questions about the future trajectory of the disease that are too difficult to ask. There may be financial questions that feel to selfish to ask.

Yet, these care partners desperately need answers.

In A Pocket Guide for the Alzheimer’s Caregiver, the Dr. and Mrs. Potts provide answers to these questions, and they provide them in an organized, meaningful, kindly, and helpful manner.

The book is divided into 24 chapters, each explaining and giving advice for such common problems as wandering, paranoia, eating issues, sleep issues, bathroom issues, violence, and how to create a living space most conducive to the health and safety issues of an Alzheimer’s patient. Each of the 24 chapters is then summarized at the end.

The book is a manual that every care partner should have available. It is not something that just gets read once. It is a book that can be referred to over and over again, providing information in times of need.

In this helpful guide, Dr. and Mrs. Potts never stray from their conviction that the Alzheimer’s patient is NOT an empty shell who is no longer there.

Their advice is to

“begin training yourself to have an attitude of hope --- to learn to love and appreciate your loved one as he is in his ‘now’. This ‘now’ will be a moving target: he will have good days and bad days, and his overall condition will slowly decline. However, this person is still the one you love, and deep down, he still has gifts and talents and a life story and the ability to give and receive love and affection. Learn to look past loss and see opportunity – opportunity to experience life with you loved on in a different way.”

This book can help the care partner achieve an attitude of hope.


Max Wallack is a student at Boston University and a Research Intern in the Molecular Psychiatry and Aging Laboratory in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics at Boston University School of Medicine.  His great grandmother, Gertrude, suffered from Alzheimer's disease. Max is the founder of  PUZZLES TO REMEMBER. PTR is a project that provides puzzles to nursing homes and veterans institutions that care for Alzheimer's and dementia patients. He is also coauthor of "Why Did Grandma Put Her Underwear in the Refrigerator?  An Explanation of Alzheimer's Disease for Children".

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PUZZLES TO REMEMBER was founded in 2008 by Max Wallack, in memory of his great-grandmother, Gertrude Finkelstein, who died of Alzheimer's disease in 2007.
Puzzles To Remember is registered in Massachusetts as a public charity. Contributions are welcome, and are tax deductible under sec. 501(c.)3 of the Internal Revenue Code.

For more information, write to us at Puzzles2Remember@gmail.com