Summary

This sensitive, but profoundly realistic narrative, of a journey from the lively, healthy marriage of two individuals deeply in love with life and with one another into the abyss of Alzheimer's dementia is told from the viewpoint of one partner. The author allows the reader to enter into her struggle with the month-to-month diminution of her beloved husband's world. The progression over the entitled "25 months" contains just the right amount of flashback to give the reader a sense of who Jack had once been and what life had held for both members of this partnership--the better to accentuate the sense of loss that this disease underscores.

Commentary

25 Months contains amazing insights into the heart and soul of the healthy one as she tries to help her husband cope with his losses of memory and of physical competence while weighing and measuring her own anger and disbelief, her strengths and coping mechanisms. The work is so very readable, despite the pain and suffering with which it is suffused. For anyone who may be working with Alzheimer's patients--either professionally or personally--this work offers extremely useful insights into the role of the primary caregiver and those upon whom this person may come to depend.

Publisher

Other Press

Place Published

New York

Edition

2004

Page Count

280