Wake Up Maggie is a beautiful love letter to caregivers and raising awareness about dementia

Wendy Valentine: Hey there, midlife warriors. On today’s episode, I’m thrilled to welcome the incredibly talented actor, filmmaker, and storyteller, Katie Prentice. Katie’s journey is nothing short of inspiring. From navigating life as a mother, English major, and portrait photographer to finding her true calling as an actor and filmmaker, she’s here to share her heartfelt project, Wake Up Maggie, a beautiful love letter to caregivers and a heartfelt story raising awareness about dementia. Inspired by her own experience of losing her mom to dementia, Katie’s passion for storytelling, both on screen and behind the scenes, shines through her work. And her personal journey of healing and transformation is sure to resonate deeply. Let’s dive into this powerful conversation about caregiving creativity and embracing life’s unexpected awakenings.

Katie lost her mom eight years ago to FTD

Please welcome. Please are welcome. Please are welcome. Please welcome a Katie to the show.

Katie Prentiss: And here I am. Hello. Thank you for that. Welcome, welcome, welcome. I’m so glad to be here with you today.

Wendy Valentine: So good to have you here. You know, I think I must have jinxed myself earlier, because we were talking about, like, you know, when you get to this stage in life, you don’t really care if you, like, trip over your tongue and you say something stupid. It’s like, ow, ow. Like the old one. You’d be like, oh, my God, I can’t believe I messed up right out. I’m like, no, keep it.

Katie Prentiss: Yes. It’s relatability, right? We don’t want to edit out the stumbles and the wrinkles and all the things. Be human.

Wendy Valentine: Keep it there. So nice to have you here. Yeah. You were, like, really good. So there’s. There’s. There’s so much I want to know. Of course, we talked for, like, 20 minutes before we even started. but mostly, I want to know your story. Take us way back, and I know that you have this story with your mom that I would love to hear more of, and then we’ll kind of start diving more into Wake Up Maggie.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah, I mean, I will say, like, life was moving. I was moving forward in life in a way that felt beautiful and full and rich. have. We have four children. I was building a career in portrait photography. Just doing our thing. Like, it all felt, like, really good and settled until my mom, at a really young age, started exhibiting really bizarre behaviors and, like, confusing situations. My siblings and I were all like, what is going on with her? So at 62, a few years after a lot of those things were happening, we got a diagnosis that my mom had frontotemporal dementia, FTD for short is. It’s so much easier to say if that’s fine.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. Yes.

Katie Prentiss: People might, know it from Bruce Willis’s diagnosis or Wendy Williams. Both of them were, public with their diagnosis in the past number of years. So my mom was diagnosed with ftd, and in those years, my sister took care of her and moved her into their home for about three years. And then we decided to move her to Oregon and take care of her in her final almost three years. that journey was, you know, really rocked my world, being a caregiver to her. M. My children were all young, like, in elementary school, and all of a sudden, I was trying to figure out care for my mother, who was becoming less and less of herself right in front of me. I lost my mom eight years ago to FTD in this. So this was 2016. And even still, after losing her, I felt okay, like, I’ll figure it out. You know, you process through your grief and you, like, have to move back into life. And, all of a sudden, you don’t have this caregiving that you’re doing anymore. It’s just. It’s like a bizarre change. But I think the thing that really impacted me was when we are close to death like that, it makes us evaluate life in a different and more deep, deep way. And I started thinking about how I wanted to feel alive. I wanted to feel alive. I wanted to do things that were exciting and new and try new things. So fast forward, I was like, I want to be on set. I think it’d be really cool to be on a set and see a show and do a movie. And I was like, maybe I’ll start a bucket list, and that will be number one. And, because of that idea, I’m trying to give a really, like, fast snippet of. Of my story. Oh, no.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah, we got time.

Katie Prentiss: Because of that idea. I ended up auditioning for a role in a film. I saw a casting notification on a Facebook group, and I submitted, I auditioned, and then I booked it, which feels, like, so bizarre and definitely magical, because it doesn’t happen like that very often.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: Booked that role. Thought that I would be like, oh, that’s even cooler than what I imagined for my bucket list. But while I was on set, I was like, I am obsessed with this. like you, I had been a solo entrepreneur for years and years and years, and I love people. And I think while I like working for myself so much, I also always kind of miss, like, the collaboration and, like, the creative community that you can have when like, I’m like, I want to sit at a table and like brainstorm with people, you know, like draw.

Wendy Valentine: On a wall and.

Katie Prentiss: Right, yeah, like have people like come together on this. Well, so that’s what set felt like. I was like, we’re all telling the same story and like playing our parts. This is incredible. And because I had spent so many years behind the camera, finding light, engaging, you know, my portrait clients to like evoke a feeling or like feel at ease, it all just kind of came together for me in that moment. It just felt like this swirl of magic. And then my life was changed. I was set. Set on a course that was different than what I had always been doing. Started figuring out how to act. Like, you know, becoming an actor is like, I need training, I need to be in class, I need to figure out this industry, what is it like to work in it. and then I started making films. my first film I made in 2020, right in the middle of the pandemic.

So. So my story is from this full life to losing my mom to wanting more life

So. So my story is from this full life to losing my mom, to wanting more life and finding it through acting and filmmaking. So it’s been wild.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah, you know, there’s that the cliche of life is short, but I don’t know about you, it’s like seeing someone pass away that when you think that they’re going to live until they’re, you know, 80s 90s and then they go so quickly.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: Does make you realize. Yeah. Life is so precious.

Katie Prentiss: It is. Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: Because.

Katie Prentiss: It’s true, you know?

Wendy Valentine: Yes, I know, I know.

FTD is not like a memory type of dementia

So tell us about your mom. What was she like before her diagnosis and before she started to decline and then tell us how, how that kind of how she changed.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: Process.

Katie Prentiss: My mom was like such a classic, just like wholesome mom. Like I, I think of her as like she was DIY make from scratch. Like, like she was my Girl Scout troop leader. She was like, she made us a birthday cake, like whatever we wanted every year for our birthdays. Like, she was just happy, go lucky, type of mom. I have a lot of really, really pleasant memories with her from childhood. She also would like erupt and like scream when like, you know, she messed up something she was cooking or something like that. So, it’s so easy to like only share like the, the sweet parts of someone that we’ve lost. But they’re, they’re really funny parts too, to her too. that we enjoy telling those stories as well. but as my mom aged, I Would say, like, probably easily in her 50s, like early 50s, started exhibiting signs. We didn’t know they were signs at that point. FTD is not like a memory type of dementia. It’s, you know, a lot of people know Alzheimer’s and they know, like, memory dementias where FTD doesn’t affect the memory, it affects personality, compulsion control behaviors. so it’s often misdiagnosed. Interesting. Yeah, it’s under the umbrella of dementia, just like Alzheimer’s. But even FTD has different variants. So it’s. This is why research is so important and why awareness is so important. so people often. It takes often an average of three and a half years to get an FTD diagnosis because it’s misdiagnosed as depression, menopause, alcoholism, midlife, crisis, like, because it happens. It’s, the most common type of dementia under the age of 65. And so it’s often in, like, midlife years where, people are changing sometimes.

Wendy Valentine: Right. and I’m sure everyone else is around them going, oh, you’re fine, you’re going through menopause. You’re fine. You’re just.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: Oh, of course the, the nest is empty. Or, of course you’re getting into your 50s. This is what happens. Right? Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: Right. So, you know, my mom was expressing stories that were delusional. Like, she was telling us things that were, like, off the wall. And, at first they sounded very believable, like real world type of things. Like, she would tell me about a man, like, following her in the grocery store or like someone at church who wanted to marry her or, like, all this stuff. And I’d be like, oh, okay, that’s interesting. You know, and then it was. It was stories like, she told me about, like, a man and a son. Son coming into her backyard. And I was like, that’s m. Weird. Like, what is that? And, you know, you try to rationally explain it. And so I thought, well, you know, it could be, you know, adult who needed care and the dad had to go, you know, get him, or, I don’t know, you start, like, trying to explain it, rationalize it. But those stories got more and more off the wall and bizarre. That’s. That’s how we knew, like, we really needed to get her checked out. but some people with FTD don’t have even that. They just have someone who starts to, like, isolate and cut off themselves socially and stuff like that. So it does just look like a personality shift.

Wendy Valentine: Oh, do they recognize it or is It. Mostly the people around them that recognize it.

Katie Prentiss: It’s mostly the people around them. Yeah. So.

Wendy Valentine: So personality changes, just odd behaviors, just.

Katie Prentiss: M. And it’s gradual control. And sometimes there’s a behavioral variant of FTD that can. The. The stories people tell about their loved ones, like, getting arrested or, like, you know, being, like, really, like, sexually unregulated. It’s. Think about our compulsions. So, like, eating, sex, like, all those things that you think we, like, stop ourselves. Like, we have reasonable function with those things. But, So, like, yeah, it. It can be really traumatic and problematic because people’s loved ones can find themselves in really deviant, bad situations.

Wendy Valentine: Yes. Like, what is dad doing? Like, what?

Katie Prentiss: Exactly. And my mom, hers. Her. Her compulsion control is mostly around, like, food and drink. She was, like, kind of food obsessed and drink obsessed. And so that was challenging, but, you know, less, complicated. Like it wasn’t legal trouble or something. So, So, yeah, it’s. It’s. It’s wild. Like the different stories you’ll hear within the FTD world.

Wendy Valentine: I’ll admit I’ve never heard of that. I’ve never heard of FTD besides, the florist company. No kidding. But, I mean, I’ve never heard of that. But I. Yeah, I mean, I’m sure most people out there probably think dementia, they connected with Alzheimer’s, memory loss. So you might have said this already, but with ftd, they do not have memory loss, or some can.

Katie Prentiss: It’s.

I’m not an expert in dementia or ftd. Um, but I know within the diagnostic test

It’s that, I don’t know, like, it’s hard because my mom’s. I’m not. I’m not an expert in dementia or ftd. And I would just want to clarify that so people can go to aftd, which is like, association of frontotemporal dementia, and find out, like, accurate information there. but I know within the diagnostic test, it’s like, if the memory test is like, I’m going to give you a list of seven words and you repeat them in the same order. Like, FTD patients can do it, whereas Alzheimer’s patients would struggle with it. Does that make sense? So it’s like the initial diagnosis, but, like, ftds. I mean, part of it is, like, brain scan, too, and, like, and they can also do testing, to see if you have, like, a genetic predisposition toward ftd.

With my mom, her FTD variant was primary progressive aphasia

Anyway, we’re getting in the weeds with things that I probably shouldn’t even be talking about, but with my mom, her FTD variant was primary progressive aphasia, which is a lot of Words. and that is the loss. The losing. The ability to speak. So, Yes. So that. So when you think about someone’s personality shift, compulsion control and all that, but then they also just cannot communicate.

Wendy Valentine: Oh, so they’re extra frustrated, I’m sure, because then they can’t communicate.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: And then makes it harder for the caregivers.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah. I felt like mom was, like, going, like, inward, like, deeper and deeper and deeper, and I’m like, I know she’s in there, but I don’t. You can’t access it. So, There’s a lot.

Wendy Valentine: So much that is a lot. I mean. And then you’re taking care of little kids at the same time.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: What was their experience like? I mean, having to seeing their. I don’t know if you call them M. Grandma, or.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah, they. They called her M. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Wendy Valentine: I mean, what was that like for them to see her?

Katie Prentiss: Yeah, it was. I think, because of. It’s interesting with Mom. M. Because I look back and now I have clarity to know, like, oh, so much of this was happening early on where she was already kind of shutting down and closing off. So in some ways, their relationship with her wasn’t as intimate as it would have been had they known her in her younger years.

Wendy Valentine: Right.

Katie Prentiss: So, like, the mom I remember, my children didn’t really experience. Like, she was already kind of, like, quirky and, like, maybe less warm than I remember. However, like, seeing someone with, like, advanced needs and living with her, like, she lived in our house for. It was about a half a year, if I remember correctly. it’s a lot. And they go with me to visit her in her homes once. We had to place her into a elder home. But, yeah, I think. I think that I was so, like, coping and crisis and trauma that I, like, tried to take care of my kids in it. But also probably. I don’t know, I look back and I’m like. I don’t know if I did a great job with that.

Wendy Valentine: It was probably such a blur, too.

Katie Prentiss: Because you’re just such a blur.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah, well, you. You move into that kind of fight or flight mode, and you’re just, like, doing what you got to do. You’re in that survival mode. And then. Yes. Yeah. I’ve had times like that, too. Like.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: You know, like, you don’t realize it’s trauma at the time, but it’s like. Oh, my gosh.

Katie Prentiss: Exactly.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. You’re just kind of, like, doing the best that you can, and then you come out of it. Wait, what? Just Happened. What happened?

Katie Prentiss: And that’s so true. And I didn’t have those words.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. I’m sure for you now, there’s probably things that bubble to the surface, like. Oh, and even in, you know, with the making of the film, it’s.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: Gonna be. Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah. I think. I mean, you know, grief in a personal way. And I think, like, there’s always, like, triggers for your grief. It’s like it’s always going to come up however your brain connects it. I mean, I was saying to my husband just last night, our dog is 16 and she’s, like, old and she’s struggling, and. And I was like, I feel like this is so goofy, but, like, it triggers me, like, with, Like, watching her behaviors, like, triggers me toward, like, memories with mom. And it’s just a lot. Yeah. So it came up for me just last night, you know.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: And definitely the work on the film is. I feel like it is healing work, for me, because it’s such a personal journey that I’m exploring and creating and trying to show. so it’s healing, but it also just keeps me really close to everything I experienced. And. And so I have to, like, be careful, like, and. And find ways to care for my nervous system and regulate. Yeah, for sure.

Wendy Valentine: I mean, I can even imagine, too. It’s just. I know just in writing a book, right?

Maggie writes Wake Up, Maggie. I feel like there’s a lot in those three words

Like, when you’re in those moments in those chapters that are so hard to tell that story, and then you’re like, oh. I mean, there’s times I would just sit there. Oh, my God.

Katie Prentiss: But.

Wendy Valentine: And then you’re like, I gotta, like. It’s like you revisit all over again the name, which I love. Wake Up, Maggie. I feel like there’s a lot in those three words.

Your mom changed her name to Maggie after her parents divorce

Tell us about the name.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah. Thank you. I. Yeah. So my mom. My mom was named Margaret Catherine Branson is her name. And she went by Peg or Peggy her whole life. And then in midlife, my parents divorce and my mom changed her name to Maggie. And so we were just like, okay, do. Do it, Mom. Go for it. You know, but it’s funny, like, having a parent change their name. Like, as an adult, you’re like, okay, I’ve got to, like, adjust, but. But it’s cute. I’m like, she never loved, like, her name, and she loved the name Maggie. And so in my first film, I named a character Maggie after her. And then this film, I was like, I want the main character to be Maggie. And the wake up portion is just to reflect on my own journey. It’s like that. That I think is a pretty. Hopefully it’s a universal experience for a lot of people in midlife, but it’s. It’s about that midlife unraveling, I call it. Brene Brown calls it an unraveling instead of a crisis because she’s like. A crisis is like one moment and a rab. Unraveling is like a series of events. And to me, what that has been like. It’s been like a thing that has gotten me to the core of who I am. And m. Like, it’s, it’s. It’s been such a profound thing for me to. I feel like so much more solid. I feel like I stand on my own two feet. I feel like I know myself. I feel like I express myself in so many ways, deeper ways. And so it’s that journey of trying to control everything and also like block and deny so much of who we are to accepting what we can’t control and like owning who we are. So it’s that, that wake up call that like, journey from like one to the next and how often it’s like. It is like crisis and trauma that gets us there. I wish it would, but. I know, right?

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. I mean, yeah. Some of the. The darkest times have brought so much light to my life and me too. And to make me into who not. Yeah, the. It’s. I feel more untethered now because of those experiences. It was interesting what you were talking about, like, with your mom, how towards the end where she was.

Katie Prentiss: She.

Wendy Valentine: She was literally going in more and you’re the out now you’re coming out more, which is kind of, an interesting.

Katie Prentiss: I love that you just brought that. I. I love that you just noticed that because I. I don’t think I’ve. I’ve. I don’t think I’ve said it that way before. And I love that so much because I think a lot about, contract. You have to contract before you can expand. And just. Even the visual of what you just did, of like you put your hands inward and then expand them out. And I think that is so true because it’s like those times where I’m caregiving or like having babies or whatever felt like, less. It was a contraction of me so that somebody else could survive or thrive.

Wendy Valentine: Yes.

Katie Prentiss: And then there’s this like, okay, that chapter is over. Now there can be an expansion. So I love that. That even connecting, like my mom going inward and like, enabled me to go outward. Yeah. M. Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: You might have to stop that one.

Katie Prentiss: I know. Good.

Wendy Valentine: Oh, yeah, yeah. It’s in that. Isn’t that interesting? Well, they say too, like. So, like I. My grandmother passed away. She was. She lived until she was 98, but even I think she was 88 when she had full blown Alzheimer’s and did not who know who she was or we were. Right. But, But then they say they. Whatever the experts. Right. But it’s almost as if they have already passed.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: Like they’ve already moved on to wherever that is. And then they’re just kind of like a shell, if you will. Did you feel at any point, like towards the end of her life there that she was.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: Be gone.

Katie Prentiss: Oh, yeah. I mean, that’s. That’s the thing. I, It felt like such an active grieving even while my mom’s breathing right in front of me.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: And that’s.

There was a genuine connection with your grandmother during her last years

That’s one of the hardest parts. I mean, ugh, it’s getting me now because it’s like watching her feel it field. It felt like from my perspective, such a shell of who she was. Like, so like almost a vacant vacancy. But I don’t know. Like, I don’t know what’s going on in her mind. I don’t. She would recognize me. That’s the thing. Like, it wasn’t Alzheimer’s where she like, couldn’t tell me. She would like light up and look straight at me and like try to whisper my name.

Wendy Valentine: Oh.

Katie Prentiss: So. But yet so cut off. So cut off in general. Like, I would try to read with her, sit with her. And she just walk off or like go get in bed or like just blank stare. Like non. No expression. So just. Oh, so hard to be with that and to want to be. To try to be the loving caregiver that I knew she would have been.

Wendy Valentine: Oh, and wishing you could care for what she really.

Katie Prentiss: Yes.

Wendy Valentine: Really needed to wake. Like wake up.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah. Oh, yeah. Anytime. There was like a genuine connection with her in those last. In that, like last year or two. It was like so life giving for me because, like if she would like, look at me or if I got her to like giggle at anything because it was so rare and so disconnected. you know, music is such a catalyst to that connection, that it fascinates me that our brains have the capacity to. To like, key into music. I don’t know if you saw that with your grandmother, but like, so we would try to play some of her favorite songs and you would like, kind of see her connect to it. Oh, it’s it’s, It is like, I think that care. I thought about this with caregivers with her. Like, people who were employed by the places where she lived didn’t have the context of her past to compare her to. And I felt like there was something really, beautiful. And maybe I envied a little bit about that because they could walk in and just know her as she was and not have any kind of loss experience in that. Whereas for me, I’m, like, always feeling that loss and that grief, even though I’m trying to accept what is right in front of me. and that is. I will add that that is the one thing that. I don’t think we talk about this in our culture at all. Like, we have such an avoidance of death. But I know for me, there was, like, the mercy or the beautiful side to her death was. One is that she wasn’t suffering anymore, but two is that I can remember her as she was, not as she was in the last bit, but that as she was before. Like, The degeneration took her mind, so that was good.

Wendy Valentine: How did, Physically do they decline? Typically? Like.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah. Yeah. I mean, it’s all. It’s all the function. So, like, you know, with, With my experience with mom, again, it’s like, you know, the. The fine muscles of, like, writing, or I noticed even, you know, years before she died, like, just like the detail work of, like, making a sandwich or something stood out to me. because she was always like, a particular. Like, I always loved the way she made a sandwich because it. You know, like, you grow up and you’re like, oh, yeah, make me one, Mom. so. But then, like, as she declined, like, it would get more sloppy or, like, less meticulous. Her handwriting was always super beautiful, like, you know, the old script. And, And then it got, like, more complicated, more simplistic. as she went, she. She. She was walking fine. Really, up until the end. It was just like, obviously incontinence happened, but also, like, her ability to swallow became. And chew became complicated because the primary progressive aphasia part. so there’s.

Wendy Valentine: There’s a physical realizing a lot of this was. I mean, did she know? Like, okay, this is really happening to me. And this is. I’m.

Katie Prentiss: I have no dying.

Wendy Valentine: Did or she couldn’t.

Katie Prentiss: I have no. I have no idea. Like, yeah, there’s just. There’s. I want to think. No, because that feels a little easier.

Wendy Valentine: Right.

Katie Prentiss: To digest.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: Being on my end of it. if she was cognizant of all that was happening. It would be so depressing as a human to like, to be able to function mentally but not be able to express at all.

Frontotemporal dementia is often misdiagnosed as Alzheimer’s

I, know people. People around us everywhere have that experience, and I can’t imagine. But, But yeah, I don’t know. I don’t know. I want to believe there were, you know, there was confusion. So, like, she. She would, like, confuse her age when she could still talk. Like, she would tell me she’s 40 and she would be confused. so it’s not like memory was like, perfectly intact. It just. It just, isn’t the same leading factor, like Alzheimer’s. So. So, yeah, it’s. It’s hard. It’s hard for me to process because a lot of it is memory based for me. It’s like, looking back and, like, trying to remember behaviors and symptoms and. And my experience with her. And then it’s just one experience compared to, like, the diagnosis. And I was in crisis and, and trying to figure out, like, how to just piece my life together. And so even, like, researching ftd, I. I didn’t. Until after she died, I. Because I. I heard frontotemporal dementia, and I was like, oh, that’s just where her dementia is. It’s in the front, inside parts of her brain.

Wendy Valentine: That’s what I thought too. Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah. And I was kind of like, oh, okay. Like, but. But still, I’m like, how do we pay for this? What do we do? Where do we put her? Like, she’s drinking every beverage in our house. So it’s. It’s like, I can’t buy my kids juice because my mom will drink it all. It’s stuff like that that I was trying to solve. So, like, spending extra time, like, I’m gonna research.

Wendy Valentine: Researching. Yeah. Like, it’s not gonna. Is there anything that relieves the symptoms?

Katie Prentiss: No, there’s no treatment for ftd, at all. In fact, off. well, I think they are developing medicine. Again, not an expert.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: Disclaimer. It’s all very recent that more research is happening. but there’s nothing that can, like, slow it or change it besides, like, you know, healthy lifestyle. Like, all the things that they say, like for brain health in general, obviously that is going to have a good effect on. On our longevity. But, yeah, they are starting to find, some genetic links. So some people are genetically, if. If there’s certain genes present and they’re. They’re seeing that FTD can be, Yeah. Genetic. I’m repeating myself. But. But yeah.

Wendy Valentine: It’s so good to bring awareness to this though because you know, again, like so many of us, especially at midlife, it’s either ourselves, our friends, our parents.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: That we need to be able to recognize that it’s not just they’re going through a midlife crisis or they’re, you know, there could be a reason why they’re going through the house and drinking.

Katie Prentiss: Right.

Wendy Valentine: There could be like sides as to why they’re. And I mean, I don’t know, like it. If you catch it soon enough, I guess just being able to do what you can to make it as good, comfortable as possible.

Katie Prentiss: Right. Yeah. And like involving people in their own care and stuff like that. And I do think because it gets misdiagnosed and often, not often not diagnosed until it’s more progressed, then it’s more difficult to do research and like all of that. So like the sooner people like do test and and get awareness, the better because then more people can contribute to research and awareness.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. You kind of wonder even people that have passed away and they did not know, they didn’t connect it to that.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah. Oh, and like, even like I think about, I see like houseless population. On the streets and like we talked about mental health crisis that people who don’t have homes and I’m like, they could have any kind of dementia but FTD could be huge, especially if they’ve gotten like legal trouble and all that. And so yeah, it’s just like our awareness as a culture needs to grow. Just our awareness as people walking around, engaging other people. But also like our awareness for research and policy change too. Like I think just in the US like, you know, caring for people in a better way. Like it, I mean, why is it that we get like degenerative disease and then we go bankrupt because we can’t afford it.

Movies have this way of like getting in the back door

Anyway, it just this whole other tangent, but this is why I’m making my movie because it’s like, let’s affect some change. Let’s affect change as broadly as we can. for all of this. So. And movies have this way of like getting in the back door, getting into people’s living rooms, into the theater.

Wendy Valentine: Yep.

Katie Prentiss: And like people can watch it and go, wait.

Wendy Valentine: Yep.

Katie Prentiss: This is kind of ringing a bell with like someone I love is behaving oddly so.

Wendy Valentine: Exactly. And hopefully even listening to this podcast, hopefully someone will listen and go, oh, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.

Katie Prentiss: 1,000. Yes.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah. It’s huge.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. I mean that is what’s.

Wake Up Maggie is a documentary about FTD. So when do you expect it to come out

I mean, one good Thing that came out of COVID We’re at least watching more, you know, movies and documentaries now. Yeah, films right. On Netflix or Amazon or whatever. So when do you expect it to come out? When do you think the film will be out?

Katie Prentiss: Yeah, so we are filming in February of 2025, so right around the corner. And, my hope is to have it completed by the end of the year. That it is going to be based on. On funding and our team being attacked. But, yeah, it should for sure within a year of production. Production. I hope to be wrapped with post production, so.

Wendy Valentine: I can’t wait to see it.

Katie Prentiss: I can’t wait either.

Wendy Valentine: This is. This piece of work, the closest that’s been to you. Closest to your heart?

Katie Prentiss: A hundred. Yes. Yes. My. This film. Like, I love making films and I have so many films, like, in the works, like in my Back Pocket, that I can’t wait to get to next that are very exciting to me. But this movie, Wake Up Maggie, is a mission for me. It’s so much more than just a movie. my connection not only to my mom, but also just the fact that I haven’t even shared this, but after my mom’s diagnosis, her younger brother got diagnosed with FTD as well. And so the genetic component is present in my family. And we talked about, like, how this film has, like, brought me really close to my own grief and my own process with mom, but it also brings me really close to deep fear, fear of having this disease. So my work is so personal. It’s personal because I want to tell these stories, but it’s also personal because it. It’s. It’s me facing my fear and not running from it. It’s me saying, okay, I’m going to control what I can. I cannot control whether I have the gene for this. None of us know, like, how our bodies are going to change or what could. I mean, tomorrow something could happen, right? But if. If I knew that I had it, if I. If I got tested and found out that I had it, I would still make this movie. That’s why it’s a mission for me. It’s like, if I only had five years to live, I would make this movie. And knowing that and having clarity on that gives me so much, like, drive and determination. And so it’s really helpful because making a movie is terrifying because so many problems exist. And it’s always like, okay, how are we gonna solve this? But I’m like, yeah, this is my calling and my mission and I cannot wait to make it. And it’s going to be so fun and beautiful, too, so.

Wendy Valentine: Oh, yeah. Do you always watch the final product? Where do you usually watch the final product? Do you have, like. Do you watch it in a theater? Do you have, like, a.

Katie Prentiss: It’ll be all of the above, because in. In the. In the post production, we’ll be editing it together and. Yeah, we’ll do sound design, and then we’ll do coloring. So there’s. You end up, Any film I’ve made, I end up watching so much that I think is this. You can’t even see it. It’s like editing a book, right?

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: You’re like. You’re like. I’m only looking at periods at the end of sentences now. And now I can’t even read what I wrote, you know, so there’s a little bit of, like, the forest for the trees analogy where you’re just like. You get so detailed and then you have to skip scale back. So I’ll watch it probably more than I would ever want to.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: But it’s part of the creation, too. and then watching in the theater, anytime I have ever watched one of mine in a theater with a live audience is just like. It’s the most vulnerable and beautiful experience because you’re just like, here we go. Like, I am revealing. I know.

Wendy Valentine: That’s. And that’s why I was asking. I was like, you’ll have to have a seat for your mom.

Katie Prentiss: And you’re.

Wendy Valentine: Oh, my God, she’s gonna be with you. That whole process.

Katie Prentiss: I love that. Yeah. Suggesting that. I love that. Yeah.

Wendy Valentine: A little seat for Maggie.

Katie Prentiss: Yes. M. So good.

Wendy Valentine: I love it, though, because you’re taking something and making something beautiful out of it, and it’s like this, you know, be the change you wish to see in the world, and that’s what you have to. That’s what we all have to do. And.

Katie Prentiss: Right.

Wendy Valentine: No matter how small, no matter how big, it’s just like doing one part can make a huge difference.

Wake Up Maggie is about helping people overcome grief or trauma

Katie Prentiss: Thank you. Yeah. I appreciate that. And I. I’m so compelled by. Whenever I see other people do the same, like, take their grief or trauma and turn it into something that brings hope and healing. I’m like, is there a better story to, like, watch and witness in someone’s life? And so I feel. I feel incredibly grateful to do work that means so much to me.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. Yeah. I think it’s great. I mean, I’m just thinking about again, the wake up, Maggie, and it’s waking up Katie, and it’s waking up so many people. So it’s, it’s, it’s a beautiful thing. As Martha Stewart would say. It’s a beautiful thing.

Katie Prentiss: Thank you. I love it.

Wendy Valentine: you’ve been great. This is, this is wonderful. And even I’ve got someone close to me right now that is. Is dealing with dementia. So it’s. It’s a nice reminder to me to really even just appreciate every bit of time that I have left.

Katie Prentiss: Right. Yeah. We only have the moment we’re in, whether it be with someone we love or ourselves or anything. So, yeah, it’s like, I think about that a lot. I like, I want to be present. I want to be present with my work or with my people or on this podcast with you right now.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Katie Prentiss: Presence is a gift.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah. Oh, I love it. So where can we find you? And then, of course, when the, the film comes out, where can we find the film?

Katie Prentiss: Ah, thank you for asking. I like to make it as easy as possible. All of my social media website is Katie Prentice, so it’s Katie Prentice.com or at. Ah, Katie Prentice. Wake Up Maggie is at wakeup maggie movie.com or social media is Wake Up Maggie movies. So please find us. I would love for anyone to join our community. I feel like just like a book launch or anything else, it’s like growing an audience that wants to watch the movie we’re making is such a beautiful gift. So following on social media, signing up for our email newsletter, all of that just gives us energy and like, more motivation to continue. Continue on.

Wendy Valentine: Yeah.

Do you have any words you want to leave with someone suffering from FTD or dementia

Do you have any words you want to leave with someone that is, you know, if they have someone right now that they’re suffering from either FTD or dementia? any words that you want to leave with them just to give them hope and healing?

Katie Prentiss: Yeah, I, mean, I really. There was a lot of years where I’ve leaned into the Serenity Prayer, and whether you quoted exact or not, I. I just think it’s like, it is all about accepting what we can’t control and controlling what we can. So we can’t control whether we or someone we love have a disease, but we can control how we’re present, how we care for ourselves, how we care for them, how we live in the moment we’re in. We can control our gratitude. You know, it’s like all of those things that, that give us that hope and healing, I think is. Is like focus on those things and try to like, open and take a deep breath on the things that you have to accept that you can’t control. That’s what’s helped me so much in this journey that’s been.

Wendy Valentine: That’s, like, my favorite prayer.

Katie Prentiss: Yeah, I know. It’s so good.

Wendy Valentine: I literally just said that earlier today. I was like, oh, my favorite prayer.

Katie Prentiss: Is y love that.

Wendy Valentine: So I was like, oh, my God. I know. Like, if she says a serenity prayer, I’m just like, that’s crazy. We’re so connected. I know.

Katie Prentiss: I know.

Wendy Valentine: Thank you so much. I appreciate you.

Katie Prentiss: Thank you for having me, Wendy. It’s been a pleasure.

Wendy Valentine: Thank you, everyone. Have a great day.