Meet Christiana Egi: Director of Alexis Lodge and Author of ‘A Rose for Grandma’
“My hope is that these books will be conversation starters. That they will increase awareness, eradicate social stigmas for Dementia and mental illness and teach valuable lessons to children and adults about respect and tolerance for each other.”
Too often society tells Black women that we don't deserve to dream. They're wrong. We deserve that and so much more: love, joy, blessings. My story starts 34 years ago in Benin City, Nigeria, where I was doing my very first internship placement as a nurse in a chronic psychiatric hospital. Check out our class photo, I'm the one in the middle wearing shades indoors... hey, moms can have "drip" too! Our placement at the facility, Mile 16 (the name indicates the distance of the hospital from the city), was preceded by horror stories and myths about how you could become "crazy" by working with individuals living with mental illnesses. My classmates and I were nervous. Our first day arrived, and we were bussed to Mile 16. Upon arrival, we were shocked by what we saw. Contrary to all the fearful stories we had heard, the individuals at the facility were just like us. They were SO kind. It saddened me to know the stigma they lived with. I remember our dancing program the best. We'd dance and dance with the patients and everyone had a blast. Mile 16 ended up being my favorite rotation, and I was forever bitten by a bug for change. I wanted to spend my career fighting the ugly stigma around mental health.
Some years later, I had the opportunity to migrate to Canada. Coming to a new country, I had some hope that people living with mental illnesses would be treated differently here, but I couldn't be more wrong. They suffered from social stigma just the same.
I started my career in Canada on the crisis unit of the largest pyschiatric hospital in the country. In my 10 years on that unit, my heart was consistently broken by the tough conditions that some of the patients would come to the hospital in.
There was inadequate supportive housing for patients, meaning that patients often would leave, decline and return back to the hospital to be re-stabilized. Then they'd leave again, only to encounter the same lack of supportive resources, and be readmitted. A truly vicious cycle. I would often come home and vent to my loving, late husband, Tony. I often wondered if we could do better by our patients. What if there was a clean, supportive , and safe home that they could count on? He'd listen and comfort me as I went on about the world I hoped could exist.
After the birth of our 3rd child, a beautiful baby girl named Alexis, my husband helped give me the opportunity to make my dream a reality. Together we started Alexis Lodge Retirement Residence, a memory care facility in Toronto for those living with Dementia.
I wanted to change the experience of living with Dementia for my residents, as I realized that not only did these individuals suffer from the same social stigma as individuals with mental illnesses, they also suffered from ageism.
That was hard to see coming from a culture where elders are revered. So I made it my mission to create a home-like environment that was safe, caring and loving. A home where residents would be treated with respect and dignity and could live their life with support and purpose.
Two decades later, I'm happy with the impact we're making in the lives of our residents and their families, but the pain in my heart continues to swell. It is not uncommon for residents with Dementia to have no family as a point of contact. Imagine that! No family. In so many ways, it can feel like they have been abandoned. Often family members slowly stop visiting, as the symptoms of Dementia can be too painful to watch. "I rather remember them as they were" is a common refrain. I feel like so many of these situations can be improved upon via support and education for families dealing with this unfamiliar condition. At Alexis Lodge, we do our best to support not only our residents but their families as well.
The Alexis Lodge Retirement Home located in Scarborough, Ontario
In 2019, I lost my beloved Tony, who was my husband, my confidant, and my business partner. As I have throughout tough times in my life, I turned to my faith in God for solace. In particular, I found peace in listening to Joel Osteen's sermons on the radio. Inspiration can come from the funniest places. One night as I was returning to Toronto after dropping my daughter off at school, I heard Joel interviewing Tyler Perry. Tyler talked about all the challenges he had to overcome before finally making it. For me, the talk was super inspiring. My takeaway was that wherever you are in your life, you can do a lot more to impact lives than you think. You just have to take the first step- removing your own self-imposed limitations.
It has been hard since losing Tony, the man who sacrificed so much to fuel my passion for helping others. But he lives on as the driving force in these books. I want to do so much more to help others in honor of his memory. I want to continue his legacy and make him very proud.
That night a seed was sown in my heart. I knew then that I wanted to do more to shift the narrative around Dementia. Although Dementia has reached a devastating scale globally, it has not been talked about enough. Although Dementia affects the entire family, children are often overlooked when it comes to the impact the disease can have on families. If that wasn't enough, Dementia disproportionately affects the Black community. Research has shown that the age-specific prevalence of Dementia has been found to be 14% to 100% higher in African-Americans.
So with all that in mind, I picked up a pen and decided to write stories about Dementia through the eyes of children, Black children, like my own, in simple, easy-to-understand language that could impact adult readers as well. My hope is that these books will be conversation starters. That they will increase awareness, eradicate social stigmas for Dementia and mental illness, and teach valuable lessons to children and adults about respect and tolerance for each other.
A Rose for Grandma is an informational book about the effects of Alzheimer’s on family members, as young Annie navigates her grandmother’s new diagnosis. This book will educate children on Alzheimer’s disease and how to understand and accept it. A Rose for Grandma is available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble right now! Order online now.
Keep an eye out for the second and third releases of this children’s book series. Follow Christiana’s journey on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and stay updated with the Forever Young Podcast hosted by Christiana and Cherrie-Marie Chiu, episodes every other Wednesday!
About the Author
Christiana Egi’s A Rose for Grandma, her first title in a trilogy series of children’s books on dementia-related illness, is part of an ongoing effort to eradicate the stigma around dementia and mental illness. Christiana is a Registered Nurse, Diabetes Educator, Registered Natural Health Nutritionist, Geriatric and Mental Health Specialist, mother and grandmother, and co-host of the biweekly Podcast “Forever Young”. She spent 10 of her 34-year nursing career working in the crisis unit of Canada’s largest psychiatric hospital and owns and operates Alexis Lodge Retirement Facilities in Toronto, Canada. She believes in treating everyone with love, respect, and dignity, and has a passion for helping families and individuals adjust to the changes that often come with dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Christiana is a woman of faith who uses her belief as a guide as she and her staff provide daily care to individuals with mental illness.
