The purpose of the website is to let you know that you are not alone. When the doctor says that your loved one has Alzheimer’s/dementia it is a life-altering diagnosis and yet you’re sent out in the world with a page of resources (if you’re lucky) and an appointment for a check-up in 3 months…

Experts say there are 3 Stages of Dementia and 7 Stages of Alzheimer’s & Vascular Dementia. Did you know that there are also Stages of Caregiving? Some say 5 stages, some say 6, - it’s the transition between recognizing your loved one has a problem, coming to grips with the issues, caregiving taking over many and most aspects of your life, getting help, and finally letting go…

“Oh no, he’s still talking,” my 80 year old mother says out loud,   not even attempting a whisper.  “Shhh” I sush her like I did to my kids when they were toddlers, but this is not a toddler, it’s my mom who has dementia. 

We’re at a community event at the high school celebrating Martin Luther King Day. ..

As a second generation Italian American my mother was always a foodie. She always loved to eat and she used to love to cook. Food has always meant love. “It’s your birthday, I’ll make whatever you want,” she’d say…

I did not want to put her in a home.  Here’s where my reasoning and rationalization sounds a little maniac. I argued that I could wait until March 2024, because March 2024 would be 4 years of mom living with us and I thought “4” would feel good and lucky, the winter Olympics are every 4 years,  a presidency is 4 years, high school is 4 years, I thought mom living with us through her rapidly worsening dementia for 4 years would feel good or perhaps symbolic …

Can you have PTSD without being in a war? It feels unfair of me to even speculate about this because there is so much real suffering in this world and I’m just a white, middle aged woman who is at the natural stage in life where I’ve been fortunate enough to have aging parents and now I have to take care of them. A blessing really.