Alzheimer's Daughter by Jean Lee: Powerful Memoir by Deborah J. Cohan "Welcome to Wherever We Are" Deals with Emotional and Verbal Abuse and Caregiving for a Loved One with Dementia

The Story

Alzheimer’s Daughter introduces the reader to my healthy parents, Ed and Ibby, years before their diagnosis, then recounts painful details as our roles reversed and I became my parents’ parent.

Their disease started as translucent, confused thoughts and ended in a locked memory care unit after a near decade of descent into the opaque world of Alzheimer's.

I began writing Alzheimer’s Daughter one week after my mother's death––when I was stunned, realizing Dad had no memory of her or their 66-year marriage.

I write to pay tribute to the undying spirit at Ed and Ibby's core, and with the hope that the story of their parallel decline might be helpful to others.

Wednesday, February 24, 2021

Powerful Memoir by Deborah J. Cohan "Welcome to Wherever We Are" Deals with Emotional and Verbal Abuse and Caregiving for a Loved One with Dementia

I was so excited to connect with this week's featured AlzAuthor, Deborah J. Cohan, a professor of sociology and former counselor, author of the memoir Welcome to Wherever We Are, subtitled A Memoir of Family Caregiving and Redemption. Her book addresses difficult, yet important topics.

Deborah writes:

The book is a braided memoir detailing my role as a caregiver for my father who had been emotionally and verbally abusive to my mother and to me. So, really, I was writing about two weighty experiences that feel riddled with confusion---domestic violence and caregiving for a loved one with dementia. Both topics---abuse and dementia---are intense because they each carry so much stigma, shame, secrecy, and silence. The book is a meditation on what we hold onto, what we let go, how we remember others and how we’re remembered.

You may read the entire post on AlzAuthors.com by clicking here.