Meet Danijela and Forget-me-nots

The ACcORD consists of wonderful individuals, consumers, researchers, health professionals and legal professionals, all with an interest of improving dementia care. One individual is Danijela Hlis, Danijela has recently written a book of poems and stories about dementia, aging and illness. This book was published with the financial assistance of Slovenian government and Alzheimer Slovenia, as well as generous donations from family and friends. The author is donating 5% of proceeds from the sale of the book overseas to Spominčica – Alzheimer Slovenia and 5% of all local sales to Alzheimer’s Australia. These proceeds will help fund important dementia research and initiatives.

Danijela was born in Šoštanj and has been writing and publishing from the time she was eighteen years old, both in Slovenia and Australia, where she now lives. During her younger life Danijela worked in diplomatic service and as a Human Resource Manager in Lon-don, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Sydney, and Melbourne. Her career changed when she opened a tourist complex in Tasmania, and again, when her aging parents came into her care from Slovenia. Forget-me-nots is her third book, after Whisper (1991) and Hideaway Serenade (1996). Hundreds of her other works are published in Slovenian and Australian anthologies and literary magazines. In Forget-me-nots, collection of poems and stories, Danijela introduces us to the world of dementia and people she knows personally, who live in this world. She writes sensitively about aging and illness, but most of all, about our universal need for love for all.

“This bilingual collection of poetry and prose is my cry for help. My hope for a better world, where we embrace each other no matter what illness or condition we live with. Our attitudes must change; life well lived is only when we accept, respect, and love one another. My mother Marija, auntie Mici, friends like Owna and Jerry, all died due to dementia, but I see their bright eyes and hear their loving voices and I continue to work hard so as to improve the quality of lives for those yet to be diagnosed. Through my work, personal experience, and voluntary involvement, I see every day what a difference a little love makes. May my poems and stories wake up this feeling of love, and help you, the reader, reach out, so that love may enter you and love may flow freely from you.”