5. Recollecting, memories and a mandala

with Danny and Liliane
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Danny and Liliane live in a quiet road close to Portobello Road market in a wonderfully eclectic and unconventional home that they have created during a half century of marriage. Their place reflects Danny's artistic creativity and curiosity with the unusual, coupled with Liliane's natural homemaking and love of good food. Walking into their house is to be dazed by a wild assortment of lovely things which adorn every wall and surface, making the house feel loved, cosy and welcoming.

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​We all sit around the large farmhouse kitchen table, surrounded by old advertising mirrors reflecting teapots, vases, spices, pots and pans to talk about the Remembering Together sessions which the couple attended for twelve weeks. For Liliane and Danny it was a chance to socialise and mix with other couples in a similar situation to them, coping with and facing dementia and memory loss.
"Yes it was togetherness and good to be with friendly people. We were all in the same boat, getting older and more decrepit! It was also mind opening, meaning you were not alone! They were very nice people and at the end of the sessions you felt uplifted and good. And Danny was usually in a good mood too!" Liliane explained.

​Liliane has found a menu from The Brush and Palette to show me. It's where her and Danny's story began. The Brush and Palette was a well-known London restaurant, whose clientele included artists and politicians. At the time that they first met, Liliane was learning English in the daytime and working as a waitress in the restaurant in the evening. Whilst Danny was an aspiring artist, making a living from drawing the girls who came in. We read the old menu and marvel at how the food and the prices have changed.
After we have finished our tea, I ask if it is possible to see their personal art piece which was created for them by Louisa White. It occupies a special corner in their bedroom, which is in itself a haven of books, pictures, curiosities and memorabilia, and Danny's desk, which is cluttered with interesting objects and painted bright canary yellow.

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​As Danny gets the mandala collage down from the wall, I ask him what he thinks of it. He ponders it awhile and replies. "She didn't miss anything at all, there's even a detail from the place where I was evacuated," he tells me.
"It is totally brilliant and everything on it is correct, just right, spot-on!" Liliane joins in.
I ask them why they have put it in their bedroom and Liliane explains:
"It brings back a lot of memories. We are 54 years married and it is good that it reminds us of our good times, all of our lives, the ups and downs. Our travels, our enjoyments. We put it in our bedroom so that when we wake up we can open our eyes and see it!"

​I wondered how Louisa, who trained in dance and psychology, but now works using movement with elders and people with dementia, came up with her idea for the mandala and how long it took to make.
"I had to create something I knew I could work with and would interest me.... As I got to know Danny I felt he would share the appreciation of my chosen form.
''I thought about it for months, then spent a day sourcing pictures and two further days printing, cutting and pasting… over all it took about 30 hours," she told me.
Meeting the couple in their own home, surrounded by the things that they love, the paintings and the objects that reflect their lives together, accumulated through their travels and collecting over the years, I can see just how Louisa arrived at her memory mandala art piece. It reflects both their lives and their interests as well as being a beautiful and lasting source of memory, even when a time comes when one of them may not remember quite as well.

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