Puzzles To Remember: Meryl Comer’s Book Signing at the New York Public Library

Puzzles To Remember

PUZZLES TO REMEMBER is a youth led 501(c)(3) nonprofit dedicated to enhancing the lives of individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias through jigsaw puzzles, cognitive engagement, and social connection. Led by Executive Director Hailey Richman, Puzzles To Remember has distributed more than 236,000 puzzles valued at over $2 million to more than 5,000 memory care communities, nursing homes, veterans facilities, senior centers, and other organizations across all 50 states and 16 countries. Our programs have benefited more than one million people while diverting approximately 148 tons of puzzles from landfills through donation and reuse. Puzzles To Remember also promotes intergenerational connection through Puzzle Time, which brings young people together with individuals living with dementia for shared puzzle solving, conversation, and companionship. Our mission is to provide engaging and purposeful activities that promote connection, participation, and joy while enhancing the quality of life of those affected by dementia. Donate Puzzles If you have puzzles you would like to donate, please contact us at Puzzles2Remember@gmail.com. We will help identify a location where your puzzles can benefit individuals living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Donation acknowledgment letters are available upon request.

Thursday, February 26, 2015

Meryl Comer’s Book Signing at the New York Public Library

By Max Wallack

Puzzles to Remember

Last night, I finally had the honor to meet Meryl Comer, someone I have looked up to for some time. Ms. Comer invited me to participate in an event at the New York Public Library, where she gave a presentation about Alzheimer’s Disease, her efforts, and her book, Slow Dancing With a Stranger.

Meryl Comer, President of the Geoffrey Beene Alzheimer’s Initiative, is an Emmy award-winning broadcast journalist and a leading Alzheimer’s advocate. She is also a caregiver for over 20 years to her husband, a physician with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease

Ms Comer’s book is unique in its unflinching honesty. She doesn’t hesitate to talk about the pain of watching a loved one sink into the depths of this disease. She doesn’t gloss over the indignities that late-stage Alzheimer’s brings. Her book is very important for the millions of caregivers who share similar experiences and yet think they are alone. All profits from her book are donated for Alzheimer’s research.

Ms. Comer asked me to speak briefly to the younger members of the audience, sharing some of my own story as a young caregiver and my research interests.

I also had the opportunity to meet Amber Roniger, Dr. Sam Gandy, from Mt. Sinai Hospital, Dr. Richard S. Isaacson, from Weill Cornell Medical Center, and Max Lugavere, filmmaker.

It was a very worthwhile trip.

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.