Dancing on Memories

A young girl is able to evoke smiles and memories when she plays the music of Swan Lake for her grandmother, a former ballerina who now suffers from Alzheimer's.

Once Nana pirouetted like moonlight shimmering on a lake.

But now the Memory Thief has come. Nana sits still like a whisper.

Sarah and her Nana used to spend their days baking challah together for Shabbat and dancing like the flames of Hanukkah candles. But now Nana is sick; she mostly talks about the past, has trouble remembering the right words, and hardly smiles.

Sarah wants to help her Nana. She listens to the stories and helps when Nana forgets words. But there must be something else she can do to make Nana happy again. That's when Sarah gets the idea to play the music of Swan Lake that Nana used to hear when she was a ballerina. Listening to it again makes Nana light up, and she remembers how to dance again with Sarah.

Backmatter includes a glossary for Jewish and ballet vocabulary and a note discussing the author's own experiences with loved ones diagnosed with Alzheimer's, as well as the true story of Marta Cinta Gonzlez, a ballerina who remembered the dances she used to do despite her disease.