Cole Escola's Touching Insight About Dementia Has People Moved To Tears
How many people can say they were a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize for a comedy they wrote? What if the comedy was a re-imagining of Mary Todd Lincoln as a resentful manic-pixie dream girl with a drinking problem and dreams of becoming a cabaret star? Cole Escola can. (It's a very small, specific list.) Cole (who uses they/them pronouns) is the writer and star of the Tony-nominated Broadway hit Oh Mary! and simply never stops pushing boundaries.
But as hilarious as they are, they are equally as vulnerable and thoughtful when it comes to sensitive life issues. Always a writer, Cole sees the world through an extremely unique, one-of-a-kind lens and pushes people to think about comedy, tragedy, love, adversity, addiction, death, and everything in between in a way not often seen.
Just this past week, Cole gave a candid interview to Mo Rocca on CBS Sunday Morning. One topic they discussed is how, after a traumatic event with their father at around age five, they moved in with their grandmother. Cole explains, "She had the early stages of Alzheimer's, so she would repeat stories a lot. But I loved them. I loved her stories."
"I realize now that when she would tell these stories, we were meeting in the middle of her memory. She was living out the fantasy of her childhood, and I was also living out my fantasy of being a young girl on a farm in Alberta," they continue.
When asked if they minded being told the same story, Cole answered, "No. I loved it." The comment section, just from this clip alone, generated a lighthouse of support. One person writes, "Just when you think you can’t love Cole anymore, they drop something like this that gives you another level of respect for them." Like many, people acknowledge how inspired and moved Cole makes them, whether through laughter or tears. "You’ve made me laugh for years and now you’ve made me cry."
But it's from the standpoint of Cole's love and respect for their grandmother that seems to truly resonate. "So beautiful. Cole is a treasure, and it sounds like their grandmother was too." And as a grandmother themselves, this commenter shares, "Littles love to hear stories over and over. My grandbaby says 'Keep telling me the story, I want to hear it again and again!' So adorable. Glad you were able to find comfort with your gramma."
Using storytelling as a healing device for people with types of dementia and their loved ones and caregivers is popular among many doctors and therapists. It's not just reading and sharing stories with the patients, but letting them share their stories, too. A 2012 NPR article notes that, "Storytelling is one of the most ancient forms of communication—it's how we learn about the world. It turns out that for people with dementia, storytelling can be therapeutic. It gives people who don't communicate well a chance to communicate. And you don't need any training to run a session."
The piece also cites Anne Basting, the founder of a program called TimeSlips, whose aim is to help empower people to use stories to express themselves, no matter their memory ability. "Our bold vision is that creative expression, growth, and meaning is available to us all at every stage of life, wherever we live and whatever our abilities," they share.
Basting explains, "People with dementia start to forget their social role; they might not remember they're a spouse...a parent. They need a social role through which they can express who they are, and the role of storyteller really supplies that." Cole Escola, even at a very young age, tapped into this empathetic wisdom. They continue to lovingly honor their grandmother by being an incredible storyteller in their own right.
