This is the book that I wanted to read when I realized that I was going to be hiking down the Dementia Trail with my husband, Mike. The book I needed that told about the hard reality of the journey did not exist so he and I, and the rest of the family, stumbled along as best we could, hoping against hope we would not get entangled in a chaotic maze of no return.There are many books about dementia but none talk of the hopelessness of the daily grind of caretaking. None talk about the big questions, what it means to be a demented Christian, a demented child of God, a demented person created in God's own image. None talk about what it means to be a person. This book does.This is a book of one family's experience. It is a unique experience because every demented family's journey is unique. There is no one size fits all. Knowing what others have thought and done and to really understand that God does not hide from the demented but that God is with them every step of the way is comforting to others on the journey.This is not a "Dementia for Dummies" book. It does not give detailed lists of what to do when. This is not a "Hallmark Moment" book that ends with a loving relative squeezing the hand of a demented person in a care facility and seeing the "spark of God" flash momentarily in their eyes. This is a book of changing diapers, mopping floors, doing laundry and discovering in so many ways that no matter what, God does not forget the demented.
This is the book that I wanted to read when I realized that I was going to be hiking down the Dementia Trail with my husband, Mike. The book I needed that told about the hard reality of the journey did not exist so he and I, and the rest of the family, stumbled along as best we could, hoping against hope we would not get entangled in a chaotic maze of no return.There are many books about dementia but none talk of the hopelessness of the daily grind of caretaking. None talk about the big questions, what it means to be a demented Christian, a demented child of God, a demented person created in God's own image. None talk about what it means to be a person. This book does.This is a book of one family's experience. It is a unique experience because every demented family's journey is unique. There is no one size fits all. Knowing what others have thought and done and to really understand that God does not hide from the demented but that God is with them every step of the way is comforting to others on the journey.This is not a "Dementia for Dummies" book. It does not give detailed lists of what to do when. This is not a "Hallmark Moment" book that ends with a loving relative squeezing the hand of a demented person in a care facility and seeing the "spark of God" flash momentarily in their eyes. This is a book of changing diapers, mopping floors, doing laundry and discovering in so many ways that no matter what, God does not forget the demented.
