Fred's Not Here - Living with Alzheimer Disease Takes Courage

Alzheimer Disease is a silent thief. Day by day it steals our memory - the very thing that tells us who we are, who we are with and how we got to where we are. Without that knowledge we feel hopelessly lost. Lynn Smith shares her story as caregiver for her mother who suffered from dementia in the hope that some of the lessons she learned will be helpful to anyone moving into that difficult role. There are many things she wished she had known earlier in her journey. This is not a medical book about dementia - but rather a personal story of living with it!! As well as her own journals, Lynn has included some of the many notes written by her mother which give a glimpse into the debilitating confusion experienced by a person suffering with dementia. She says, "If what I learned can spare someone else even a small amount of the pain that I experienced in losing my mother inch by inch and agonizing over how to care for her in the process without diminishing her as a person and ensuring that her dignity was honoured, then this book will have fulfilled its purpose."