Welcome!
Are you a care partner or caregiver for someone living with Alzheimer’s/dementia?
Are you a pastor seeking pastoral care resources for someone living with Alzheimer’s/dementia, or a caregiver?
Are you a church leader seeking to educate your congregation about Alzheimer’s/dementia?
The focus on caring for and supporting someone with a memory loss illness is most often on what is being lost as memories and abilities slip further and further away. It can feel like a freefall with nothing to hold onto. But we do have something to hold onto, something that is always with us, and that is our spirituality. Our spirituality—the sense of all that gives meaning, value and purpose to our lives, yet is beyond and greater than us—remains even beyond the veil of dementia.
It is through important relationships and accomplishments, our sense of community, our sources of inspiration, hope, joy, and what we value most in our life that we find our spirituality. Spiritually, persons living with dementia can be comforted, supported, encouraged, and strengthened through the rituals, practices, and activities that have brought meaning and a sense of the sacred to their life. Just as food, clothing, and shelter are lifelong basic needs, care, connection, and assurance are lifelong spiritual needs. For those who love and care for someone
living with dementia, spirituality is a tethering bond to that person, an unforgettable and solid anchor of who this loved one is and was, as they slowly slip deeper into the fog of disease. Spirituality is always with us.
This website, Always With You, offers practical tips for caregivers, stories, a blog, workshops, worship suggestions and congregation resources as a partner to Always With You: Spiritual Comfort for those Living in the World of Dementia. (Pilgrim Press, Dec 2025)
My Official Bio
Rev. Donna Marie Vuilleumier is a pastor and author living in Hillsborough, NH, where she is active in the community and the New Hampshire Conference of the United Church of Christ. She attended Massachusetts Bay Community College, Framingham State College and earned her MDiv in 2003 from Andover Newton Theological School. She was ordained in 2005.
She is currently writing her second book which will be a middle grade reader for younger caregivers. Tentatively titled, ‘Pippa Keeps Her Keys in the Sock Drawer,’ this book is for 8-12 year olds as there is a growing trend of youth becoming assistant care partners for older relatives when a parent is a caregiver.
Donna enjoys time with family and friends, traveling, kayaking, snowshoeing, theater, concerts,
bike riding and hiking easy trails.
