DES MOINES, Iowa — The longest day of the year is Friday. It’s the day with the most light, and it’s the day the Alzheimer’s Association calls on people to fight the disease by raising funds and awareness.

Susan Dahlman, from Pleasant Hill, is trying to do just that with the “A Ray of Sunshine Project”. It honors her late husband of 38 years, Ray Dahlman, who battled Alzheimer’s. 

She’s using her skills from her career. Susan has been an artist her entire life, first as a fashion illustrator at Younker’s department store, then designing brochures for Maytag, and then drawing hidden puzzles for Highlights children magazine.

Now, inspired by her background and her husband, Susan creates activity kits with simple, engaging hidden pictures meant to stimulate those affected by dementia and memory challenges.

“Having done hidden picture puzzles for Highlights magazines, I thought, why don’t I develop some that are simple, older artwork, not young children’s things,” she said. “And then we’ll just have him sit at the table every day and we’ll just go through those and see if he can find the hidden things. So I thought this would probably be a good project and it would be in honor of my sweetheart husband.”

Each kit has 10 reusable double-sided pages. It comes with dry erase markers and an eraser.

“When I developed these pieces of artwork, I’d sit him at a table. I’d lay one on the table there and I’d say, ‘Do you know what that is?’ And he’d say, ‘Oh, that’s a tractor.’ And then, that would give his mind a little bit of stimulation,” Susan said. 

She started making them just for her husband, Ray, but when he passed away in 2021, she wanted to help others. She’s selling them with proceeds going to Alzheimer’s causes.

“Just seeing that emptiness and the struggles that he was going through, not knowing who he was or where he was. I felt if I could give him something to temporarily give his mind a little something to do,” she said. “I just thought why not do that, so I did that. I thought, I’ll just go ahead and have them lament printed and laminated and see what happens.”

“Even though they might not know exactly what they’re doing if they have something to do with their time, besides sitting in a chair.”

Susan took care of Ray until the last two months of his life. Creating activities for him, like this, made both of them feel better and happier. 

“I always wore a nametag that said ‘I’m Susan, I’m your wife and I love you.’ I felt very blessed that I was able to do something for Ray and maybe for others that are going through the struggles with dementia.” 

Susan had no problem coming up with a name for these activity kits. Ray wrote her an anniversary card years back that said, “You are my sunshine.”

“I know what it’s going to be. He was my ray of sunshine and that’s what the name of the project is going to be. A Ray of Sunshine.”

For more information or to purchase a kit, visit ARayofSunshineProject.com

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