Alzheimer's Daughter,
memoir, Jean Lee, 2.99
What would you do if both parents were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s? At the time of their diagnosis, Ed Church struggles to his feet, yelling, “How dare you use the A. word with me,” while Ibby wags her finger at the doctor scolding, “Shame on you.” They protect each other, Ibby by asserting, “We’re not leaving our home,” and Ed reassuring, “We’re just fine.” About his driving Ed defends, “I’m an excellent driver, I’ve never had an accident.” When their daughter, Rosie, finds dings in Ed’s car, he dismisses, “Someone must have bumped into me.” After Rosie moves them to assisted living, convinced they are on a second honeymoon, they break the news, “We’ve decided not to have more children.” In the late stages, they politely shake Rosie’s hand, inquiring, “Now, who are you?” In
Alzheimer's Daughter readers journey with Rosie Church from her first suspicions that something is awry to nearly a decade later as she is honored to hold Ed and Ibby’s hands when they draw their final breaths.
Blue Hydrangeas, an Alzheimer's love story, fiction, Marianne Sciucco, .99
What if the person who knew you best and loved you most forgot your face, and couldn't remember your name? A care facility is everyone's solution for what to do about Sara, but her husband, Jack, can't bear to live without her. He is committed to saving his marriage, his wife, and their life together from the devastation of Alzheimer’s disease. He and Sara retired years ago to the house of their dreams, and operated it as a Cape Cod bed and breakfast named Blue Hydrangeas. Jack has made an impossible promise: He and Sara will stay together in their beautiful home no matter what the disease brings. However, after nine years of selfless caregiving, complicated by her progressing Alzheimer’s and his own failing heart, he finally admits he can no longer care for her at home. With reluctance, he arranges to admit her to an assisted living facility. But, on the day of admission, Sara is having one of her few good days, and he is unable to follow through. Instead, he takes them on an impulsive journey to confront their past and reclaim their future. In the end, he realizes that staying together at any cost is what truly matters.
When all is lost, family begs to be found. Elizabeth Miller is a thirty-four-year-old mama’s girl facing a crisis. Her divorced mother Janice receives a deadly diagnosis and becomes a volatile patient, and her fractured family tailspins toward their last resort—legal guardianship with disastrous fallout. Elizabeth soon exposes her mother’s long-held secret, which lies at the root of her family’s problems. With the lines blurred between right and wrong, she travels a path of reconciliation through the heartland of elder care in a family saga as memorable as Still Alice and as poignant as We Are Not Ourselves. From the Great Depression in Nebraska to the 1970s divorce boom in Illinois, Brought To Our Senses chronicles the lives of five generations of family over seventy-five years. The rocky relationships of four siblings complicate efforts to care for an aging parent diagnosed with the mother of all maladies in the new millennium.
Providing dementia care is profoundly stressful for families and caregivers. People with dementia or Alzheimer’s experience emotional distress, which leads to behavioral complications and the need for institutional care. However, if families and caregivers are able to identify the emotional needs caused by dementia and understand which skills are lost and which remain, they can lower the behavioral complications and their own stress. As the founder of the Dementia & Alzheimer’s Wellbeing Network® (DAWN), Judy Cornish approaches dementia care with clear and empathetic methods that not only improve the lives of the individuals with dementia but also of those caring for them. Dementia and Alzheimer’s are very personal and individual experiences—they vary from person to person. However, Cornish has identified a pattern in the abilities and disabilities of people living with dementia. Based on her findings, Cornish was able to develop methods for caregivers to ease emotional distress, which can quickly and safely resolve behavioral complications. Though people with dementia lose a sense of self, they are still the same person you always loved. Judy Cornish understands this. The Dementia Handbook: How to Provide Dementia Care at Home is the supportive guide you’ve been looking for as you walk alongside your loved one on this difficult—but potentially rewarding—new path.
In need of his own redemption, Noah Carter finally confronts his childhood hero, the once-beloved uncle who betrayed him. Instead of vengeance, he offers forgiveness, also granting Uncle John a most curious request—for Noah to work on the ramshackle farm of Agnes Deveraux Keller, a French WWII survivor with dementia. Despite all Agnes has lost, she still has much to teach Noah. But the pair’s unique friendship is threatened when Tayte, Agnes’s estranged granddaughter, arrives to claim a woman whose circumstances and abilities are far different from those of the grandmother she once knew. Items hidden in Agnes’s attic raise painful questions about Tayte’s dead parents, steeling Tayte’s determination to save Agnes, even if it requires her to betray the very woman she came to save, and the secret her proud grandmother has guarded for seventy years. The issue strains the fragile trust between Tayte and Noah, who now realizes Tayte is fighting her own secrets, her own dragons. Weighed down by past guilt and failures, he feels ill-equipped to help either woman, until he remembers Agnes’s lessons about courage and love. In order to save Agnes, the student must now become the teacher, helping Tayte heal—for Agnes’s sake, and for his.
Finding Ruth: A Daughter's Quest to Discover Her Mother's Past, memoir, Cynthia Hamilton, Free
A writer turns to detective to learn what her mother's life had been like before Alzheimer's stole her memories. A true story of forgiveness and healing. As fiercely independent Ruth struggles to stay self-reliant at the age of 86, each day brings her closer to an event that will alter her life forever. While her author daughter shifts through Ruth’s possessions prior to her move into a skilled nursing facility, she discovers a previously unseen photo from 1949 and realizes how little she knows of her mother’s life. As Alzheimer’s continues to warp Ruth’s once sharp mind, she can no longer shed any light on the past. Yearning to know who her mother was as a person in her own right, the author painstakingly reconstructs Ruth’s life from photos, letters, public records and firsthand memories. What emerges is a portrait of a bright, beautiful woman who is propelled through decades of broken promises and heartache, bouncing from one ill-fated relationship to the next, but always staying strong, always surviving. Through a timeline going back sixty years, the author gleans a much better understanding of the woman she had known only as Mom.
Do you know what love really is? What does it look like? This sweet little book is full of inspiration for any of us who love, but especially for caregivers. It shines a light on the beauty that may otherwise be hidden in our relationships, sometimes along with the hard realities that must be faced. It used to be that nine months or so after a traditional wedding, couples would announce they were pregnant. In Alan and Karenna's case, nine months after they married and before their first honeymoon year was over, they were instead adjusting to the symptoms of Alan’s newly diagnosed dementia. This is Karenna's account of their passionate midlife romance and marriage cut short by early onset dementia. It’s the unique story of her grief process, which began only months after her wedding to Alan, a man to whom she felt bonded physically, emotionally, and above all, spiritually. The story addresses the universality of love and loss and the need to go through the grief process, no matter how much we'd like to avoid it. It also touches on the larger philosophical question of how we are connected to one another and what creates a bond that feels like destiny, two souls meant to be together.
London lawyer Max Rivers has it all - a burgeoning career, a beautiful girlfriend, an exclusive address - but he harbours a long-buried secret that threatens to destroy his carefully constructed world. Invisible Ink is a mesmerising novel of guilt, loss and betrayal within a family - of sibling jealousy that threatens to run out of control, a mother's life all-but forgotten through the fog of dementia and a son who longs to, but cannot, escape his past. Pippa Kelly's haunting debut offers a deft exploration of the complex emotions hidden beneath the surface of our lives; drawing its readers into Max's story and leading them, step by careful step, towards its inevitable dénouement.
It is painfully difficult to watch loved ones decline as dementia ravages their mind, destroying memories, rational thinking, and judgment. In her touching memoir, I Will Never Forget, Elaine Pereira shares the heartbreaking and humorous story of her mother’s incredible journey through dementia. Pereira begins with entertaining glimpses into her own childhood and feisty teenage years, demonstrating her mother’s strength of character. Years later, as Betty Ward started to exhibit bizarre behaviors and paranoia, Pereira was mystified by her mom’s amazing ability to mask the truth. Not until a revealing incident over an innocuous drapery rod did Pereira recognize the extent of her mother’s Alzheimer’s. As their roles shifted and a new paradigm emerged, Pereira transformed into a caregiver, blindly navigating dementia’s unpredictable haze. But before Betty’s passing, she orchestrated a stunning rally to control her own destiny via a masterful, Houdini-like escape. I Will Never Forget is a powerful heartwarming story that helps others know that they are not alone in their journey.
Love Finds a Way: Book II in the Ligonier Romance Series (The Ligonier Romance Series 2), fiction, Karen Malena, Free
In the historic small-town of Ligonier, nestled in the Laurel Highlands, romance may be in bloom along with the spring wildflowers. McKenna O’Malley, a young housekeeper at a senior care facility, has always longed for love. Though she harbors a dark secret, she dreams about breaking free of the legacy of her father—a convict she’s never met--and the shrouded mystery surrounding her mother’s death. Tim McMillen struggles with his own demons. Plagued by alcohol, fueled by anger, he finds himself jobless, homeless and alone. When Tim and McKenna meet, they find one another as kindred spirits. But the challenges they face may threaten all chances for happiness and even push McKenna to the very brink of sanity. In the sequel to Love Woven in Time, we revisit Harry and Rose McMillen, whose love in their senior years is an inspiration to all who know them. But as Rose senses that her beloved is losing precious memories more rapidly, she begins to wonder how long they really have together before the ravages of time and age erase precious moments forever. Step into a quaint Pennsylvania town that will welcome you, warm your heart, and take you into a journey of longing, faith, and ultimately, lasting true love.
The primary purpose of this Health Care Edition of Managing Alzheimer’s and Dementia Behavior is to assist both Healthcare Professionals and Family Caregivers alike in providing the best care possible to those living with Alzheimer’s and other dementia-related diseases. No less important, however, is another objective; for the information contained within these pages to be a catalyst in creating a better understanding on managing behaviors and proper ways to communicate with our patients and loved ones. We are also hoping that this shared knowledge will help build a better bridge of communication between professional caregivers and the family members caring for those living with dementia. Communication between these two factions is paramount. It is our hope that this book will be read individually or in groups, discussed openly and, after putting some of the tips now learned into practice, discussed again. Always remember, each patient is unique, but at the same time, the disease can often be manageable with the use of common sense, diligence and, most importantly, with love. The ultimate goal is to make sure those with dementia are getting the best quality of life, for this is truly the best scenario for both parties involved. We need to educate all hospitals and health care communities to become dementia-friendly.
Caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease requires an abundance of knowledge, patience and love. There are many obstacles along the way to discourage and overwhelm even the most well rounded individuals. Meet Me Where I Am is an essential resource for Alzheimer’s caregivers, designed to teach, enlighten and comfort while preparing for the journey ahead. Providing real life scenarios commonly encountered, along with solutions to some of the more difficult tasks, makes this book a “must read” for anyone seeking a better understanding of how to meet the needs of those suffering with Alzheimer’s disease.
Minding our Elders: Caregivers Share Their Personal Stories is a portable support group, a reminder you aren't alone. Each story about caring for the elderly is self-contained; each person telling his or her story knows your pain in watching a loved one suffer, the joy of giving of oneself, and the emotional and physical exhaustion of the whole experience. It is an intimate and powerful resource for caregivers, filled with true stories about seniors and aging parents.
Alzheimer's disease, infertility and love of horses intersect in this award-winning memoir. At age 33, author and poet Ann Campanella returns to her home state of North Carolina ready to build a horse farm and start a family. Ann's foundation is shaken when she experiences multiple miscarriages at the same time her mother spirals into Alzheimer's. Ann's connection to horses sustains her as she cares for her elderly parents and her window of motherhood begins to close. As her mother's memory fades, Ann receives a final miracle. The voice in Ann's memoir has been called constant and abiding, her imagery indelible. Her graceful, exacting language rises above the grief of infertility and the struggle to care for aging parents, connecting the reader ultimately to the heartbeat and resilience of the human experience. This memoir was a finalist in the Next Generation Independent Book Awards, the world's largest not-for-profit independent book awards.
A poignant mother-daughter memoir, Not Going Gently fuses story and science together into a unique book. Constance L. Vincent, PhD, shares her mother’s personal experience living with Alzheimer’s, intertwined with her own professional research into the disease.
In November 2009, Jana Panarites was scrambling to make ends meet in LA. Her career spiraling out of control, she didn't think life could get any worse until she learned of her father's sudden death two days before Thanksgiving. She flew east for the funeral, and was forced to confront her future head-on at the sight of her devastated eighty-year-old mother. After living her entire adult life in LA and New York City, the second generation Greek-American decided to move back into her childhood home in Maryland--determined to save her career and her one remaining parent. In Scattered: My Year As An Accidental Caregiver, Panarites takes readers on an unvarnished, hair-raising journey of reinvention, inspired by love and a dwindling bank account. Her tale of attempting to advance her career while attending to medical appointments, household chores, and a flood of grief-related emotions raises issues of family loyalty, the strain of caregiving, resilience, and the repercussions of a romantic marriage for those left behind after death. Fast-paced, compelling, and filled with dark humor despite the seriousness of the subject, Scattered sheds a much-needed light on the plight of baby boomers everywhere, eager to thrive in their own lives but put to the test by aging parents--and often unprepared for what lays ahead.
Navigating the waters of dementia can be frightening, unleashing a myriad of emotions for everyone involved. After Vicki Tapia’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, followed closely by her father with Parkinson’s disease-related dementia, she struggled to find practical, helpful information to light her way. Somebody Stole My Iron began as a diary to help her cope, but emerged as a road map for others. It offers a glimpse into her family's life as they rode the waves of dementia, sometimes sailing, other times capsizing. This engaging memoir offers useful information from experts within the field of Alzheimer's research, personal lessons the author learned along the way, and ideas and tips for managing the day-to-day ups and downs of dementia.
Caring for an elderly parent can be extremely challenging. The role reversal involved is emotionally and intellectually demanding, and many caregivers find themselves unprepared to undertake such a difficult task. In Trading Places: Becoming My Mother’s Mother, author Sandra Bullock Smith shares her personal experiences spending ten years caring for her ailing mother. This heartfelt look at the trials and tribulations of that decade offers powerful insight and encouragement for anyone entering into a similar period of life. Smith’s touching stories share the heartbreaking, and sometimes comical, moments she experienced while providing assistance to her aging parent—and how they mirrored similar events from her own childhood. In a very real sense, the two women traded places. Smith found herself uttering phrases she heard all too often as a child, such as, “Don’t give your food to the dog” and, “You’ve had enough sugar today.” Smith began jotting down the things she said, and thus this charming book was born. Filled with respect, compassion, and love, this uplifting and amusing memoir is for anyone involved in elder care or who may face the role in the future.
A young girl and her Nana hold a special bond that blooms in the surroundings of Nana’s magical garden. Then one day, the girl finds many weeds in the garden. She soon discovers that her beloved Nana has Alzheimer’s Disease; an illness that affects an adult brain with tangles that get in the way of thoughts, kind of like how weeds get in the way of flowers. As time passes, the weeds grow thicker and her Nana declines, but the girl accepts the difficult changes with love, learning to take-over as the garden’s caregiver. Extending from the experience of caring for her mother, artist Kathryn Harrison has created this poignant children's story with rich illustrations to candidly explore dementia diseases, while demonstrating the power of love. It is a journey that will cultivate understanding and touch your heart. After the story, a useful Question and Answer section is included. $1 from the purchase of this book will be donated to the Alzheimer Society of Canada. The Alzheimer Society is Canada’s leading health charity for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias.
