Publisher's Synopsis
The relationships of mother and daughter, and husband and wife are the primary focus of this moving account of a family's experience with dementia. When the last of their four children leaves home, Vivienne and her husband anticipate a new stage of independence, but her mother’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease necessitates a radical change of plans. The progression of the disease, grieving over the gradual loss of her beloved mother, and the enduring love between her parents are recounted with lyrical tenderness and searing honesty. Vivienne’s father must now care for his wife, the woman whose support was so crucial to his own rise from farm boy to confidante of prime ministers. Family history and the ironic role reversal of the parents give this sandwich generation story an immediacy that lingers. This memoir depicts illness, grief, and hardship in abundance with equal measures of love, determination, and joy.
