The Art of Making New Memories

Some walked haltingly, on unsteady feet; others rode in wheelchairs. But all of the Alzheimer’s patients who came to the Four Seasons hotel in Newport Beach on Saturday had loved ones at their side.

Enjoying a rare day away from their residential care facilities, the patients sipped tea with their families and attended an exhibit of colorful artworks--their own.

Sponsored by the Alzheimer’s Assn. of Orange County, the exhibit featured the 12 paintings showcased in the organization’s 1999 Memories in the Making art calendar. Each calendar month features an artwork created by an Alzheimer patient. Proceeds from calendar sales are used to help pay for the association’s patient service programs in Orange County.

Bea Watkins, 87--mother of 11 children, including two sets of twins--was the first patient to arrive. Eyes lighted with anticipation, Watkins was led to her painting--”Grand Canyon Tree”--by her daughter, June Steelman, and her 11-year-old great-granddaughter, Melissa Steelman.

“Oh my--isn’t that beautiful?” said Watkins, gazing at the craggy dark tree she had painted against a golden background.

June Steelman steadied her mother, holding her tight. “This feels wonderful,” said Steelman. “The whole family is just in awe over this [painting]. During mother’s life, she never had much time for herself. She was too busy cooking, doing for others.”

Like the other patients whose artwork is featured in the calendar, Watkins was encouraged to paint by an instructor who visited her care facility.

Alzheimer’s disease is a progressive, degenerative illness that attacks the brain, leaving patients with impaired memories. Left alone, patients can become passive and unproductive.

“The disease takes so many things away from patients that an art program can bring a little dignity back into their lives,” said Marilyn Oropeza, an art instructor from Fullerton. “We help Alzheimer patients do something on their own, then we show if off--make a big fuss over it--and they get to feel special again.”

On Saturday night, the paintings were auctioned off at the association’s black-tie gala at the Four Seasons.

About 400 guests attended the event, which featured a salute to association supporters John and Donna Crean, LaDorna and Robert Eichenberg, Betty Belden Palmer, Sandra and Alex Rados, U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox (R-Newport Beach) and new Orange County Sheriff Mike Carona.

Carona was honored for his pledge to take a leadership role in training Orange County Sheriff personnel about the association’s Safe Return ID Bracelet program.

Wandering is a common and potentially life-threatening behavior that can affect people with Alzheimer’s disease. The association encourages the families of Alzheimer’s patients--there are 40,000 in Orange County--to enroll their loved ones in the program.

“When a law enforcement official sees a Safe Return bracelet on a wandering person, they know immediately that this is someone who is possibly lost, suffering from dementia--not someone on drugs,” said Linda Scheck, association director. Without a bracelet, the average cost to the county to find a lost patient is eight hours of emergency personnel time.

“Besides helping Alzheimer patients and their families, the Safe Return program helps the sheriff and police departments save money,” Scheck said.

For information: (714) 283-1984.

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Feting Royalty: In a ballroom packed with the who’s who of Catholic Charities of Orange County--including Bishop Tod D. Brown, the head of the Diocese of Orange--Rita and Gene Deiss of Anaheim were crowned king and queen of the 12th Mardi Gras Ball on Saturday at the Hyatt Regency Irvine.

About 600 guests attended the benefit that netted $150,000 for Catholic Charities, a nonprofit organization providing emergency services, health care and education programs to more than 40,000 people yearly in Orange County.

During his 22-year tenure with Catholic Charities, Eugene Deiss--a retired vice president of Marriott Hotels--has helped more than 1,000 homeless families find shelter and support.

He has also worked to place refugee families who have escaped from war-torn countries.

“I want to share with you one of the most unique stories of a family that my family and I came to know through Catholic Charities,” Deiss told the crowd, which also included gala chairwoman Sherry VanMeter--an ex-Mouseketeer who lives in Nellie Gail Ranch. “The [Kimpau] family lived in Cambodia--the mother a homemaker, the father a government engineer. They had four sons and a daughter. . . . “

Deiss went on to weave a tale of horror--one that saw the arrival in 1975 of Pol Pot’s murderous regime in Cambodia. Suddenly, professionals who once held places of honor were executed--including Kimpau--and children were denied schooling.

Soon, the fatherless Kimpau children, ages 6 to 12, were forced to work as field laborers to feed the conquering soldiers, “Yet they were starving,” Deiss said. “For five years there was no food, no medicine--they never heard the sound of a car . . . only buffalo carts.”

Their mother traded all her possessions to feed her children. And then, recognizing the hopelessness of the situation, “she made the most courageous and difficult decision of her life,” Deiss said.

“She permitted her second oldest son, Vaughn, then only 13, to escape to the Thailand border with five other men.

“He made it to a refugee camp and was eventually sponsored to come to the United States in 1979.”

Deiss and his family came to sponsor the Kimpau family through a refugee program sponsored by Catholic Charities. They brought the mother, Eng, and her children to Orange County.

“Thus began our great adventure . . . helping them adjust to their new culture,” Deiss said.

Today, the boys and their mother are thriving in Santa Margarita, having built a “small empire buying and selling [Winchell’s] doughnut shops,” Deiss said.

The daughter has become a medical doctor, establishing a family practice in Fullerton.

“What you receive [from Catholic Charities] are graces beyond what you imagine,” Deiss said. “There are many ways to be involved.”