I must have stopped doing jigsaws at quite a young age. I remember though a period in my childhood when I spent a substantial amount of time doing them. I especially remember the ones that depicted different countries. I found them on Wikipedia recently. They were Waddington Jig-Map Puzzles which came out in the 60s and 70s. Over a period of a few years me and my brothers must have done lots of these, all depicting a different country. I remember making and remaking the jigsaws by fitting the Eiffel Tower piece into the correct part of France or Edinburgh Castle into the correct place in Scotland. After the country was finished, the oblong town names had to be slotted into the correct place on the map. I always felt a sense of accomplishment when the shape of the country and its innards labeled correctly were there laid out on the table. I imagine my parents thought this would help with geography at school; however the only thing I can remember from geography at school was the movement of flocks of sheep around Scotland – I remember wondering at the time how this could possibly be important knowledge to have and I’m still wondering. The jigsaws though may have made travel an early passion. Visiting those places was an early aspiration. I don’t think I have visited all the places I did jigsaws for but I must have been to quite a few.

Now after a gap of more years than I care to count, jigsaws are back with a vengeance. It was early on in my mum’s stay with me that I remember asking a friend who had just started working in a dementia care home in Scotland for ideas about how I could stimulate my mum and get her interested in doing things. She recommended a wonderful website www.active-minds.co.uk and the very patient and helpful Ben who runs it. He started it in 2009 after the time he had spent with his grandfather who had dementia highlighted the need for such products.  Its press is accurate : “It offers a range of award winning activity products specifically developed for people living with Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. …..[their] thoughtfully designed products provide an age appropriate activity resource for people with dementia, their families and carers.” The jigsaw puzzles were the first type of product that Ben developed. He then went onto develop memory cards (which help stimulate discussion), picture books (of the 50s and 60s), aquapaint (reusable water painting) and other products. I have tried a variety of them with my mum and we always come back to the jigsaws.

Not any jigsaw works though. Children’s ones don’t work - the images are too infantile and insulting to an adult. Adult ones don’t work either – they are much too challenging for someone with dementia. The Active Minds jigsaws are subtly different. The images are all of adult scenes – garden views, seaside scenes and sports amongst others. They also have a frame which depicts the border of the image making it much easier to see which bit goes where. They are sturdy – they need to be ‘cause they will be repeated. And they have large pieces and not too many. The first one I got was one depicting a mountain view. Both my mum and Himashi, our two year old next door neighbour, love doing it – over and over again.

You can also get personalized ones. Here, you can send the website a personal photograph and jigsaws will be made using your photo in 11, 24 or 35 pieces.  These are brilliant. They add a whole personal dimension to the actual puzzle. The first one I got done is of Sandy (my dog) sitting in the garden under the bird bath and bird feeder. This is the view you can see when sitting on the porch doing the jigsaw. You start with finding pieces to make Sandy, her body, tail, paws and a bit of her back. Then you go onto do the bird bath and feeder, then the tree behind that. Mum and Himashi love this one. It also comes up and down in the car to Colombo meaning that the Unawatuna garden view and Sandy (mum’s favourite dog) who are not normally a part of the Colombo scene have now been integrated into the Colombo living room.

We’re now awaiting the arrival of a jigsaw depicting the blue water lily or “Nil Mahanel” flower, botanically known as “Nympheae Stellata” which was declared the National Flower of Sri Lanka on 26th February 1986. As well as this claim to fame, it also lives in the pond next to the porch. Mum loves this flower (and I share her passion here) as it opens up in the morning to reveal the full lilac flower and then closes up again overnight. It does not last very long and I don’t have many in the pond so their appearance is always stunning and breakfast always includes a discussion about the possibility of one appearing that day or not. This jigsaw will be arriving hopefully with my brother and his wife and their two children at the end of the month. The fact that you can get personalised jigsaws made also adds another layer to the taking of photographs as these days any photographs become jigsaw possibilities.