My mom is 91 this year and she has Alzheimer’s. She lives with my sister and sometimes I have mom stay with me to give my sister a break.

When I was growing up, my mom had a side business making hats for her clients. I remember watching her gluing down the flowers and trimmings. I loved to smell the white glue and to smear it on the palm of my hand, wait for it to dry and peel it off. (Wait, that didn't sound right. I wasn't into sniffing glue like an addict. I swear!)

When she was with me I had to give her something to do. Since I was sewing, she started sewing. She loves sewing buttons and I noticed that she went for the colorful ones.

I have to be careful when she’s at my desk. She is very neat and will organize my beads, put things in bags, put stuff in her pocket… THIEF!!!One time I could not find a project that I was working on. It was months later when I was looking for something else that it popped up.

We’ve been in two exhibitions together and at receptions, no one can tell her she is not an artist. The first exhibit, she pulled people to her art and started talking to them. Her conversations can be jumbled but her cheerfulness shines through.

The below video was an announcement of our first show together when she was 88 yrs old.

When I got the info for Dinga McCannon's workshop, I had a feeling that I should get my mother involved also. She's 88, lives in Queens with my sister and has dementia. She doesn't do much at home and since she used to make hats when I was growing up, I figured this would give her something to do.