Today's guest blogger is Jean Lee, author of the painful and beautifully written memoir
Alzheimer's Daughter. Jean reached out to me via Twitter and introduced herself
after reading Blue Hydrangeas. She
told me she loved the story and that it reminded her of her years caring for
her own parents. She said she’d written her own book and asked if I’d be an
advance reader. Of course I said yes. Thus began a lovely friendship and a
strong collaboration as authors dedicated to raise awareness of Alzheimer’s
disease. She is a driving force in
#AlzAuthors Ending the Isolation ofAlzheimer’s, a tireless advocate for caregivers, and a brilliant writer. Today
she shares a little of her own story, and how writing her own book helps her
help others.
She also shares something
about the other #AlzAuthor titles in our collaboration. Jean has been featured on this blog several times. Welcome back to
Adventures in Publishing Jean!
Sharing Our Caregiving Stories Helps Others Cope
by Jean L. Lee, author of Alzheimer’s Daughter
Caregivers. We are all
caregivers. As humans we care for one another, or we should. Most especially,
we care for those close to us.
- As a youth I loved and
respected my parents, a form of caring for them in my child-like way.
- As a young wife and mom, I
cared for my husband and children.
-
As a teacher, I cared for my
students.
But the logical timeline of
maturation, love, and respect tipped topsy-turvy when my parents reached their
eighties. They slowly began to lose their minds, act irrationally, and I became
concerned for their safety. I sought out medical treatment, and they were both
diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease on the same day.
Over the next decade I became the
parent to my parents. I gradually, painfully made decisions, which they opposed
in order to protect their well-being. In the process, I felt the guilt of
taking everything away from the people had given me everything.
As I struggled to keep the pieces
of my life together––my marriage, my own family, my career and the care of my
parents––I grasped for resources, but found few. I am a positive person,
therefore I sought uplifting resources, but much of what I read was written
with a negative undertone about the ill treatment of a caregiver by an
unreasonable loved one, about adult siblings who fought, about children who had
grown up with angst toward a parent which continued through caregiving years.
Even so, every time I found a kernel of truth, I felt as though I could keep
going, someone else was brave enough to share this upside down world as well.
I came to the conclusion that
sharing my story might help others.
Alzheimer's Daughter details my
journey caring for my parents. It is written with wincing honesty about the
cruel effects of the disease, but a WWII love story held together by faith and
family is contained within the pages.
Over the past several months,
four other authors from across the country and I have crossed paths, all of us
affected in some way by Alzheimer’s disease/dementia.
For the month of November, the
five of us have joined together in recognition of National Caregiver
Appreciation Month and National Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month to
recognize those unsung heroes, family caregivers. From each other we learned
that all of us felt compelled to write our books, hoping to make a
difference…hoping that we might make the pathway of others traveling this road
a little less painful and lonely.
Somebody Stole My Iron, by Vicki Tapia
Vicki details the daily
challenges, turbulent emotions, and painful decisions involved in caring for
her parents. Laced with humor and pathos, reviewers describe her book as
“brave,” “honest,” “raw,” “unvarnished,” as well as a “must-read for every
Alzheimer's/dementia patient's family.” Vicki wrote this story to offer hope to
others, to reassure them that they’re not alone.
What Flowers Remember by Shannon Wiersbitzky
Shannon writes this work of
fiction through the eyes of a small-town preteen girl, Delia, whose elderly
neighbor, Old Red Clancy is failing mentally. The aged gentleman has to be
placed in a care facility, but Delia will not let him wither away. She devises
a way for the whole community to remind Old Red how important he has been in
all of their lives.
On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s by Greg O’Brien
Diagnosed with early-onset
Alzheimer’s, Greg O’Brien’s story isn’t about losing someone else to
Alzheimer’s, it is about losing himself a sliver at a time while still fighting
to live with Alzheimer's, not die with it.
Blue Hydrangeas, an Alzheimer’s love story by Marianne Sciucco
A pair of retired Cape Cod
innkeepers struggle with the wife’s Alzheimer’s.
For more information about
caregiving and caregivers please follow #AlzAuthors during National Caregivers
Appreciation Month, November 2015, or find us on
Facebook.
You may read my interview with Jean
here and my review of
Alzheimer’s Daughter here.
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