Category Alzheimer’s disease

Love from a Distance

September 11, 2020 · by · in Alzheimer's disease, Book, Death and Dying, Family · 1 Comment

When Marshall was at the end of his life, he was surrounded by family. We smothered him with love. I am especially grateful to have held his hand through his last breath and my head close to his while listening intently to his final gasp. COVID has robbed families of this blessing. If your elderly […]

First Place Award for The Alzheimer’s Spouse

July 3, 2020 · by · in Alzheimer's disease, Book, Books, Catholic, Christian, Death and Dying, Faith, Family, Navigating Alzheimer's, The Alzheimer's Spouse, Writing · 3 Comments

Whether fiction or nonfiction, quality books require diligent research, experience, wisdom, imagination, and years, if not decades, of time. From concept through publication and on through marketing, books are the offspring of authors. We live and breathe them. Most books have a life, a period of time in which they are relevant and of interest […]

Easy Test with Big Answers

June 23, 2020 · by · in Alzheimer's disease, Book, Books, Family, Health · 1 Comment

Do you struggle to remember names? Do you forget where you are going or what you wanted to do? Is it difficult for you to complete basic math? When multi-tasking, juggling work, home, and family, or exhausted from a long day, it’s not unusual to forget things. We misplace credit cards and keys, forget to […]

Choosing a Memory Care Home Sight-Unseen

May 4, 2020 · by · in Alzheimer's disease, Book, Death and Dying, Family, Health · 4 Comments

We may be sheltering in place but Alzheimer’s disease is not holding still. It’s doing what it always does. It progresses. There is no cure for this disease. Symptoms may be somewhat controlled with medication and behavioral modification, but loved ones’ health conditions continue to decline. Should the symptoms become unmanageable from the loved one’s […]

COVID-19 Caregiving Challenges

March 23, 2020 · by · in Alzheimer's disease, Book, Books, Family, Health, Navigating Alzheimer's, The Alzheimer's Spouse · 3 Comments

In the best of times, caring for our loved ones with dementia can be stressful. Under the cloud of COVID-19, we can be pushed to our limits. In addition to the round the clock supervision and direction, we have the concerns about sanitation. Loved ones with dementia are typically messy in the bathroom and at […]

One Year Later

March 7, 2020 · by · in Alzheimer's disease, Book, Books, Death and Dying, Faith, Family, Midwest, The Alzheimer's Spouse · 3 Comments

Life goes on. Our loved ones pass and it’s a day, a week, a year. Before we know it, it’s 21 years since we last kissed their cheek, as it is with my mother. Our loved ones are frozen in time. We remember them just as we saw them last. But we keep growing older, […]

Work as Worship

February 21, 2020 · by · in Alzheimer's disease, Book, Books, Catholic, Christian, Navigating Alzheimer's, The Alzheimer's Spouse · Leave a comment

My wise, yoga friend, Hansa, asked what I’ve been up to. I told her that I was working a lot, grateful for the work, but had little free time. She responded, “Work is worship. Yes, we get paid, but we also worship through our work.” I’ve been pondering Hansa’s words and understand what she was […]

God’s Curious Timing

February 3, 2020 · by · in Alzheimer's disease, Book, Books, Catholic, Christian, Death and Dying, Faith, Family, Navigating Alzheimer's, Saint Mother Theodore Guerin, Saint Theodora and Her Promise to God, Saint Theodora Guerin, Seven Principles of Sainthood, spirituality, The Alzheimer's Spouse, Young in the Spirit · Leave a comment

God pushes us. The tougher the situations we’re presented, the more likely we’ll also be offered opportunities to use our God-given gifts to assist others in similar situations. I’ve been richly blessed as well as greatly challenged most of my life. But that doesn’t seem to be an excuse to slack off through my senior […]

Dementia-Style Holidays

November 26, 2019 · by · in Alzheimer's disease, Book, Books, Family, Health, Navigating Alzheimer's, The Alzheimer's Spouse · Leave a comment

When Alzheimer’s is on the scale, a drop of anything can send everything crashing. Families long for the traditions that mark the holidays. Special foods, music, colors, clothing, and decor trigger emotions and tie memories of the past with the ones we make today. Sadly, our meaningful traditions are likely to be too much for […]

The Long Inevitable Good-Bye

November 8, 2019 · by · in Alzheimer's disease, Book, Books, Death and Dying, Faith, Family, Navigating Alzheimer's, The Alzheimer's Spouse · Leave a comment

Marshall passed away 8 months ago today. His passage still disturbs me. Witnessing such a strong, active man decline over more than 15 years and then in the end to become so very frail, dependent on total care for every basic need, retching from drug withdrawal, and unable to communicate, was death by a thousand […]

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