HOUSTON — Once a month, Dr. Cindy Williams packs up her art supplies and heads to CarePartners near Braeswood.
It’s where she volunteers her time by teaching a free art class at the Dementia Day Center.
Cindy, as she is known there, is the first to tell you she is not a professional artist.
"During COVID, when everybody was isolating, I moved into our little garage apartment," she said. "And we had no TV there so I started to paint every day."
As an internal medicine doctor, she isolated herself from her family and began painting to help cope with the stress of the pandemic and the grief of losing patients.
But, she began teaching art to honor the memory of her father.
"My dad had dementia and, you know, at first we were just so devastated by that news and worried because as a physician you know what that progression is going to be like," Cindy said. "But my dad really taught me something beautiful about this disease and that is that people with dementia live for the moment."
When she teaches, she finds ways to make art easy and enjoyable for all skill levels.
"When they don’t have full dexterity, we employ tools that anybody can use: fingertips, plastic bags, Q-tips," she said.
Cindy said the greatest joy is when the participants remember her every month.
"And when they don’t, they remember the experience," she said.
CarePartners is a licensed adult day center for individuals with early to late stages of dementia that provides stimulation and socialization for participants who are still living at home with family. If you'd like to volunteer, or even donate art supplies for Cindy's class, contact CarePartners by clicking here.