N.B. woman crafts 'cuddling dolls' for seniors suffering from dementia

[This photo shows Beth McCormack’s mom with a new doll her daughter made / Facebook]

It was her mother’s own struggle with dementia that first inspired Beth McCormack to start creating her handcrafted ‘cuddling dolls.’

The Miramichi, N.B., resident was looking for a way to help her mother re-connect with her past as it slowly slipped away. That’s why she decided to create a realistic looking infant doll to help comfort her mother during her time of need.

“Her nature was to nurture, that is just who she was — she loved babies, she loved children, and I think it just brought something back to her, it just connected with her,” McCormack told Global News.

Seeing the impact the doll had with her own mother, McCormack has dedicated the past two years creating infant dolls for senior citizens suffering from dementia and Alzheimer’s disease across Canada.

As Global News reports, each therapeutic life-like doll created in McCormack’s workshop takes about 30 hours to create.

“There is not a lot of money to be made when you look at the hours you put in,” McCormack said. “[But] that’s not why I do it.”

And according to Mary Lynn Steele, recreation manager of Loch Lomond Villa nursing home in Saint John, the two dolls they’ve been using with their residents have already had a profound impact.

“By putting the baby in their arms and things, you can see the change in their eyes and basically just happiness and being able to rekindle old memories and what having a baby again is like for them,” she said.