Creating seashell valentine helps Cape Cod residents with dementia

CENTERVILLE — Placing seashells to form an intricate design helped to revive memories of Surf Drive Beach for Flora Palmer, a resident with dementia at Harbor Point at Centerville memory care facility.

"The ocean had a wonderful smell, so salty and fresh," Palmer said Monday. She used to be a junior lifeguard, she said.

Over the past few days, residents of the Benchmark community helped piece together a sailor's valentine — a colorful geometric mosaic comprised of small seashells such as Cassis nucleus, which is striped with a violet lip, and mussel shells. The form of shell craft is usually created inside an octagonal wooden box encased with glass and features a centerpiece such as a heart.

The centuries-old tradition stretches back to the mid-1700s. Barbadian women crafted and sold them as souvenirs to visitors. With the island often the final stop before home for North Atlantic-based ships, sailors purchased them as gifts for loved ones.

At Harbor Point, the activity helps boost fine motor skills, as residents pick up tiny shells, and to jog memories.

"A lot of these folks are from the Cape or have spent a tremendous amount of time on the Cape," Kate Fontana, Harbor Point at Centerville executive director, said. "So, the seashell piece, there's always something there and even if it's just tactile, it's something that you know is comforting or engaging to them."

The project was inspired by Harbor Point resident Linda George and her husband Lloyd.

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A passion for crafts began with knitting in college for Linda George

Before she became ill many years ago, Linda's passion for crafts began with knitting in college. She eventually began to crochet, needlepoint, and weave intricate Nantucket baskets, before falling in love with sailor's valentines.

"She loves the beach. Every time we'd go to the beach, she'd pick up shells and when she got home, she'd wash and organize them," said Lloyd, who said the couple met in college in Lowell and became sweethearts.

She'd then go to the family's cellar and "do something I can't do," said Lloyd: piece the shells together to create a complicated design. Her specialty was creating different types of flowers.

Sailor's valentine project started at Harbor Point as activity for residents

The project started in the spring as an activity for residents but especially his wife, he said. He made a big box to hold the valentine, going to his basement shop and cutting supply wood and gluing it together.

He also supplied jars of shells his wife had collected over the years. The family's house contains "thousands and thousands" of shells that she'd collected during shell-hunting trips on Cape beaches and vacations from Malaysia to Mexico.

Once that larger valentine was completed, Harbor Point decided to create a second in time for Valentine's Day, Fontana said.

"When we finished the first one, it was almost disappointing because we loved working on it together … it's just something that really brings everybody together," she said.

Picking up the small shells can be difficult

Picking up the small, delicate shells can be difficult for Linda now.

"I want her to participate to some degree, but she just can't do it anymore," her husband said. "That's where the disease is."

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But Fontana noted that Linda, who was a Cape Cod Hospital emergency room nurse, will sometimes go into "nurse mode," and touch someone's neck to check their glands.

Usually creating a sailor's valentine is an individual endeavor, Lloyd said.

"To see a group of people participate, it's nice," he said. "It's a wonderful thing to see, it really, really is."

Zane Razzaq writes about housing and real estate. Reach her at zrazzaq@capecodonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @zanerazz.

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This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Seashell valentine helps Cape Cod residents with dementia