The Remember Balloons, a children’s book by Jessie Oliveros, is making its way from its pages to the stage in Durham and the Alzheimer’s Association is thrilled to be part of the program.
Live Performance: The Remembering Balloons
with Impact of Alzheimer’s & Dementia in the Community presentation + Q & A
Wednesday, January 28, 2026 | 1:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Carolina Theatre, Fletcher Hall – Durham
The story, which is inspired by her grandfather’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, tells the tale of James, his grandpa and all of their balloons. Following this family show, the Alzheimer’s Association will offer it’s Impact of Alzheimer’s and Dementia in the Community program
Each balloon carries a special memory. Grandpa has a million balloons because he’s lived so long. James loves to hear about the stories in Grandpa’s balloons. But Grandpa has been having trouble holding onto his balloons lately. They start to float away, and James can’t catch them even though he tries. James discovers that he is now the one to share Grandpa’s stories.
In an interview Oliveros did for a PBS blog, she shared “While I wanted to write a story about Alzheimer’s, I knew that –in real life– it doesn’t end happily ever after. But I was writing a children’s story! And it was important for me to show children that hope could be found in even impossible-seeming things.”
“The idea of balloons really just came to me. And it worked. Because I needed the story to be accessible to children, and what is more accessible than balloons?”
Alzheimer's Association North Carolina Blog 