“Tell me your story!” Reminisce Connect guides seniors with dementia to remember their good old days

Patricia Lee has the unique ability to draw out stories from what seems mundane.

“Just a pink IC (identity card) and there is so much to talk about – the photo, the address, the old postal code, name, dialect.

“You can spend 20 to 25 minutes talking about your growing up years,” said the 61-year-old.

Patricia (left) and Arthur conducting a Reminiscence workshop.

Coaxing conversations about the past is a skill Patricia has honed from over three decades working as an oral history practitioner with the National Archives of Singapore. From former POWs and Pulau Ubin village heads to medical pioneers and union powerhouses, she has managed to draw out their recollections and reflections over many a cup of coffee.

Now, she uses those same interviewing skills to help the elderly, especially those with cognitive impairment. Together with her husband, Arthur Wong, she runs Reminisce Connect, a non-profit organisation that uses reminiscing to reach seniors, especially those with dementia.

Reaching out to the aged  

It started with a desire to reach the elderly for Christ.

Said Arthur, 65: “Singapore is an ageing nation. When I look at the statistics – one in four will be over 65 by 2030 – that troubles me. In terms of people exposed to Christianity, that’s only 15% to 20%. And seniors have a shorter runway.

“I wanted to give them the opportunity to hear the Gospel and come to know the Lord.”

With what Patricia knew about interviewing people, they developed a programme called “Tell Me Your Story“.

Patricia and Arthur started Reminisce Connect to reach the elderly with the Gospel.

“We wanted to teach people to collect stories as a non-offensive way to reach their parents for Christ,” said Arthur, who believes that every believer should be equipped to share the Gospel with their elderly loved ones instead of relying solely on Pastors.

The one-to-one reminiscence training equips caregivers, volunteers and professionals to interview and record life stories of the elderly. The process of gathering these experiences helps the elderly reflect, remember and re-frame their past, affirming positive events that lead to a meaningful and abundant life.

Stories they long to tell

The idea for this came from Patricia’s own experience interviewing her mother for the National Archives of Singapore.

“My mum was my second interviewee when we were collecting the oral history of the community in Singapore. She passed away in 2023 at 93 and I was 68 when I interviewed her.

“I realised how therapeutic it was for her to be interviewed. People are just looking for a space to share and someone to listen to them.”

Patricia with her mother Madam Yeo Siew Gin.

Her mother had been uneducated and could not even write her own name. Because of that, she used to lament to Patricia that she was useless.

But in the course of the interview, Patricia helped her mother to see how resourceful she really was. To supplement the family income, her mother used to peddle mee siam along five-foot ways.

She also became the middleman between buyers and sellers of flats. In today’s terms, she would have been a real estate agent. So in the 1950s, long before the term became fashionable, Patricia’s mother was already a “mompreneur”.

The impact of those interviews lasted well past the exercise itself. When her mother became bed-bound in her last few years, she enjoyed listening to her own interviews. Even when she became semi-conscious, she could still respond to parts of her interview, reciting along with the nursery rhymes from her past.

Said Patricia: “That really fuelled our passion for the value of reminiscence. It also deepened our presupposition that man is made of body, soul and spirit.

“Regardless of how our body and mind decline, our spirit is still very much intact and we never lose our desire to connect horizontally with people and vertically with God in our inner spirit.”

Going further afield  

Their church, Gospel Light Christian Church, was the first place they introduced “Tell Me Your Story”. But Arthur wanted to do more.

So began a search for how to engage the aged, especially those with cognitive challenges. That was when he stumbled upon The European Reminiscence Network which promotes the use of reminiscence therapy and life-story work for older people, particularly those living with dementia.

Because of his wife’s extensive experience in culling memories, Arthur encouraged Patricia to go to the United Kingdom to learn more about reminiscence therapy from the international organisation.  

Patricia returned to Singapore and, with Arthur, developed their own 12-week Singapore version of the programme called “Take Off Your Cap!”. That was in 2018 and the beginnings of Reminisce Connect. Dementia Singapore, previously known as Alzheimer’s Disease Association, was the first to partner them in this.

Working on Reminisce Connect holds significance for the couple. In his 30s, Arthur was diagnosed with epilepsy. He became a house husband while Patricia worked. Now, this has become a meaningful mission they can do together.

After the Wongs started Reminisce Connect, they discovered Arthur now has Mild Cognitive Impairment which may or may not lead to dementia. 

“It started when I realised that at a church camp, I couldn’t remember my hotel room number. When I returned, the professor taking care of my epilepsy sent me for an MRI,” he told Salt&Light.

“They found that my brain had shrunken and there was protein build-up in the brain causing the neurons not to connect. We are managing it. It has been eight years and I have been quite stable.”

Connecting through reminiscence

Over 12 weeks of “Take Off Your Cap!”, the group of participants are taught to walk through the various events in the elderly’s life – from childhood to school, work, courtship and marriage, setting up a new family, holidays, food and celebrations.

Activities, arts and crafts, and artefacts that engage as many of the five senses as possible are employed to draw out memories.

“Reminiscence is about drawing long-term residual memory in their brain, pulling out those memories,” Patricia explained.

Husband and wife go to great lengths to do this, going so far as to use costumes and role play to jog memories. They have been known to recreate classrooms of yesteryear – complete with school uniforms – to bring participants back to their days as students.

Dressing up to bring the old school days to life.

In another session, participants are blindfolded and asked to touch certain items or taste them to guess what they are. This leads to talk about their food experiences and recipes their mothers or grandmothers had.

Arthur recounted a time when such a session led to a participant sharing how he used to make chapati. They then encouraged him to make chapati for everyone.

“We empowered him to show the rest how it was done,” said Arthur.

Added Patricia: “The focus is on a relationship-driven approach.”

This perspective came from her years developing relationships with the people she interviewed on the job.

Bringing God into the memories

During the COVID years, Arthur and Patricia decided to add a spirituality component to the programme. The 12-session “Reminiscence and Spirituality Training (REST)” was born. The difference between this programme and the community one is the God component.

Re-enacting a wedding scene for REST.

“In this portion called transition, we add doses of the Gospel. For example, in the first session, we talk about who we are. We may use our identity card or items from the past like an old telephone or pager.

“In the summary, we then talk about how we are unique and important. This allows us to transition to talking about how God makes all of us special and how we are ‘fearfully and wonderfully made’ (Psalm 139:14),” the couple told Salt&Light.

The programme is used in churches and wherever permission has been granted to infuse Christianity into the curriculum. In the session on school days, they talk about good friends and bad friends, and introduce the concept of sin. This leads to the next session on work and office politics, which segues into the consequences of living in an imperfect world.

Patricia dressed up as a teacher for a session on old school days.

Giving the seniors a chance at every session to encounter God’s truth has worked in some cases. At the end of one REST programme conducted at an eldercare centre in Marine Parade, two participants became Christians. The Wongs found out later that both passed away last year.

A family affair

In 2023, Arthur and their son John Enoch, then 20, went to the United Kingdom to get trained as well. That was also the year Patricia stepped away from her job to do Reminisce Connect full-time.

Arthur and Patricia, and their son John Enoch, who is waiting to start university, now work together in Reminisce Connect.

“I had to trust God. After so many years of financial security, to give up everything and live on unpredictable income was quite scary,” Patricia admitted.

“But God reminded me when I was decided whether to come out or not, ‘Just collect manna on a daily basis, don’t try to collect too much. Even if you collect little, you will have sufficient.’ It was reassuring.

“And when I was worried about providing for John and his future, God reminded me of Psalm 37 and how He would take care of my offspring.”

Reminisce Connect is now a family affair. John Enoch’s interest in photography has added another dimension to their programme. Now, at the end of the 12 sessions, each participant is gifted with an album of their photographs documenting their 12-week journey.

John Enoch (right) putting his love of photography to good use.

The marked change in their facial expressions – from stony silence at the start to warm smiles by the 12^th session – is heart-warming.

John Enoch told Salt&Light: “By Sessions 5 and 6, you can see their faces lighten up. We also show them the photos every week to help them recollect.”

Patricia added: “The daughter of one of the participants actually told us, ‘Thank you for giving so much happiness to my mum.’ It was really fantastic.”

A place to linger

Reminisce Connect now counts churches, social services agencies and hospitals among their partners.

Recreating the cinema experience for the elderly, complete with kachang puteh (peanuts) in paper cones, for them to relive the past.

They have also added a third programme that carries on after “Take Off Your Cap!”: “Come Let’s Rest” invites the alumni of the programme to continue to gather every month and build on the relationships already established.

“The intent is to continue to share the Gospel and, for those who have become believers, to give them deeper insights into Christian living,” Patricia told Salt&Light.

The rhythm of the “Come Let’s Rest” sessions is gentler and less high octane, giving participants a place to linger and “have their socio-psycho well-being attended to”, she added.

As much as their programmes have blessed those with dementia and their caregivers, Arthur tells Salt&Light, though despite his health condition, “that God can still use me to develop something like that and use it, I am awed and humbled.”

About the KIN Dementia Ministry Conference 2026

The Dementia Ministry Conference focuses on dementia inclusion in the Church. The Conference hopes to help every participant be filled with the hope of the Gospel, especially in a ministry that is often associated with illness and suffering. If you are keen to understand dementia from the perspective of faith, or if you would like to be encouraged by what churches and ministries have been doing to build a faith community for those with dementia and their caregivers, find out more here.

DETAILS:

Date: May 30, 2026

Time: 9am-5pm

Venue: Singapore Bible College
                9-15 Adam Rd, Singapore 289886

Cost: S$120

Click here to register (registration closes May 20, 2026 or when fully subscribed).

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