Here’s another book that’s made it’s way onto my list of ‘must reads’.
People react to the death of a loved one in many ways. Lauren Kessler’s way was to try and understand more about the disease that killed her mother. To do so, she got a job as a caregiver at a residential Alzheimer’s facility in Oregon. Her book, Dancing with Rose, documents her time spent there as a caregiver to patients with various degrees of Alzheimer’s.
Read these essays by Lauren…
Bridging the Gap
Seeing Instead of Watching
Check out these book reviews…
Life in the land of Alzheimer’s
Seeing Mom’s Humanity First, Instead …read more

This has been “spring cleaning” week at our house, when I began sorting through “stuff” and wondering if I should keep so much.  Some of this concerned letters and papers that were my mom’s, that I boxed and brought from her home when I moved her to mine. 
 These evoked memories, as well as information I can share with my readers, like the quote from Mother’s notes about her feeding her sister with Alzheimer’s.  Another was a calendar with reminders for Mother.  
As Mother became more forgetful, we had to develop a method for helping her keep track of what was going on …read more

“Where’s my meat?” I asked my husband Jim when I returned to the dining table.  The hamburger that had been on my plate was gone.
“Don’t look at me,” he remarked.  “Look at Mother!”
Sure enough, my mom was happily munching my hamburger, having finished hers.
This became a challenge at meal time.  Mother might finish something she liked, then look around for more, not realizing my plate or Jim’s wasn’t a platter for her to select from.  This also became a problem at the nursing home I used for day care. She either helped her neighbors cut their meat or took it for her …read more

During a cleaning spree recently, I came across some notes, copies of newsletters to family, and journal entries written during those days of caring for Mother throughout her Alzheimer’s journey.  Reading these brought back some of those challenges and joys of that time.
From one of my newsletters to family after she came to live with Jim and me – “Mother does get up more and more throughout the night and wanders around the house or gets confused about where the bathroom is, where her bed is, etc.  So I never get a full night’s sleep.  Sometimes I’m up with her as …read more