The moment they realised we were in Narnia
I work with people living with dementia, and one of my favourite things we do is our Friday afternoon reading club.
After a busy week, we all come together, get our favourite drinks, and I sit and read whatever book we’re currently working our way through. It’s amazing what it can do. We have several residents who will often walk with purpose around the home, but during reading club they all settle down and listen so intently. It genuinely makes my day — especially because I love doing all the voices!
For the last two weeks, we’ve been reading The Magician’s Nephew. What’s surprised me most is that some of the residents have remembered what happened the previous week. Usually, I give them a little recap at the start, but this week some of them remembered things before I even mentioned them.
I also deliberately never told them at the beginning that we were reading a Narnia book.
Today, we reached Chapter 9: The Founding of Narnia, and we had one of those wonderfully unexpected moments that you don’t get to experience every day.
They had taken everything in: the idea of travelling to a completely new world, the mysterious song, and the fact that the song was bringing this new world into being. Even when the Lion appeared and began to sing, they hadn’t quite made the connection.
Then I read the chapter title: The Founding of Narnia.
And you could see it happen.
A few of them suddenly realised what was happening. They knew The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, but hadn’t read the other books in the series, so the realisation that we were actually witnessing the beginning of Narnia was such a lovely moment.
There were smiles, little comments of recognition and that wonderful sense of “Oh! I know where we are!”
It was such a small thing, but it really reminded me why I love doing this.
Dementia can take away so much, but moments like this show just how much is still there — the memories, the imagination, the anticipation and, most importantly, the joy.
And honestly, I think I enjoyed reading it just as much as they enjoyed listening. ❤️📚