Touchstone Memories is a dedication to the memory of Viola Foulks. She was our mother and grandmother, and is the inspiration for our book building project. In 2006 Vi was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. For Christmas that year we helped her compile a book of special memories that she could share with her children and family. The disease at that time was mostly affecting her short-term memory and she
was still able to recall and recite many wonderful memories from her childhood, her early marriage and our childhoods. It was a very special gift. What we did not realize at that time was how it would grow in value as her disease progressed and her ability to recall these memories faded. In the last few years of her life she spent many hours reading and re-reading her memories. In the last weeks of her life it became even more important. She had lost the ability to communicate, but she would still smile when we read to her stories from her life. Two years before her diagnosis our dad/grandpa was taken from us by a sudden, massive stroke. Although we knew much about his early life, there were many questions we were deprived of the ability to ask, and many stories we would never hear. Touchstone Memories has been a long time coming. We mention on our home page how I helped my mom make a memory book many years ago, before we really realized that she had Alzheimer's. It was in the form of a scrapbook and we made copies for my 3 brothers. When she passed away around 10 years later, I sent new copies to her sisters. After talking with them, I wanted to help them make their own books but with one living in Missouri and one in Illinois, my options were limited. I started brainstorming, trying to figure out how I could do it using Google docs, uploading and downloading voice files for me to transcribe, pictures, etc., and then realized we just needed an application to do that. It seemed meant to be as I my son, John, was finishing college with a computer science degree and my brother, Dana, was a graphic designer. We started Touchstone Memories about 2-1/2 years ago. John started designing the application while he was in school, and then worked on it part time while he was employed for a software company in Laramie, Wyoming. He came back home to Rozet to work full time for Touchstone last fall. He has done an amazing job, learning so much more along the way than his degree taught him.
