When a Massachusetts teenager saw his Alzheimer's-afflicted grandma struggling to complete her beloved word searches, he came up with his own special solution. John Frates, 17, compiled a custom set of puzzles with simplified words, bigger font, and no more diagonal or backward solutions. "Every time I showed her a new word search," Frates says, "her eyes lit up."
Following his grandma's positive response, Frates shared the word searches with other residents of her nursing home. He has now published the first-ever puzzle collection for seniors with dementia, called Grandma and Grandpa's Word Searches. The profits from sales of the book will go towards raising money for Alzheimer's patients and research.