Dementia Diary

For 15 years, Robert Tell was his widowed Mom's caregiver as her mind and personality disappeared into the fog of dementia. He tells the tale with compassion and humor in this full length, fast moving memoir. His lesson: Caregiver burnout can be helped. Laugh and cry with him as he takes away her car keys, helps her move into tiny quarters with all her furniture, tries to undo mismanagement of her finances, and refuses to promise never to put her into a nursing home.

Daphne Slough moves to a southern rural township and falls in love with David Archer, the high school's multi-talented star athlete. Successful careers and an ideal marriage propel them into high society with material wealth beyond their aspirations, but their most cherished and unfulfilled desire of a child eludes them for two decades. The joyful birth of Adem in their middle years delivers the ultimate proof that misfortune overshadows every success in their lives.

It’s morning at Meadow Brook Nursing Home. During the last 10 months, this has been my mother’s abode. Most days, I feel it is mine, too. Life, as I have known it, is a blur. Alzheimer’s has taken mother from herself, her family, and her friends. It has demanded a grit and grace in our everyday lives beyond human comprehension. I know that I must tell her story - which ultimately is my story, too - with hope that it may bring a degree of peace to the hearts of those who have walked, or will walk, the same road.