Our sixth and final sessions of online reading groups took place this week. Over the last few months four different groups of incredibly enthusiastic and much-appreciated volunteer participants have been meeting weekly to discuss excerpts from some of our chosen dementia fiction texts. There have been some wonderful conversations, a fair few laughs, some new friendship formed and a lot of tea and coffee consumed. It’s been an absolute treat to spend time with those of you who volunteered for these groups and we hope you’ve enjoyed the experience as much as we have.
In the days before Covid we’d planned to host these groups in person with lots of tea and cake. When Lockdown hit we had to change our plans and move everything online. We were worried the atmosphere might be lost in the move and that communication might be more difficult in a Zoom setting. However, we’ve been blown away by just how well the sessions went, everyone joined in and shared their thoughts in such a generous and open way. We want to say a massive heartfelt thank you to all our participants. Your feedback and responses will provide us with so much material to analyse and really really help with the research. We couldn’t have run this project without your generous contributions. A big thank you from the whole Dementia Fiction team. Here’s hoping we get to meet in real life soon.