Hope. Grief. Frustration. Exhaustion. Delight. Denial. Mary Ellen Geist touches on all these emotions and many more in her account of dealing with her father's struggle with Alzheimer's disease. She put her career and life on hold and returned to her childhood home in Michigan to help her parents. In the Foreword Dr. Oliver Sacks points out that Geist “has written eloquently of a whole family living with dementia.” This is indeed the whole family's story. Geist gently guides readers into the labyrinth of daily life in the household.

The book is emotional but also full of information. Stories of other caregivers are woven into the narrative. Facts and figures about the disease and caregivers (71% are women) are provided. Particular attention is devoted to caregivers. All too often caregivers take on too much and compromise their own health.

One chapter that surprised me was about the hospital experience. Geist's father (Woody) was admitted for orthopedic surgery, a double knee replacement. He was in the hospital for two weeks. The hospital personnel were not prepared to deal with a Alzheimer's patient; I was shocked. This chapter, “Hospital Hell and Healing,” should be read by any caregiver who will have an Alzheimer's patient in the hospital. Geist offers a list of suggestions that will be helpful.

Despite a cascading loss of mental acuity, Woody never lost his musical abilities. He remembered the words and melodies to songs learned long ago. Music remained in tact in Woody's brain. As Sacks notes, “he seemed to be completely present, to come together and bypass his dementia (though as soon as the singing ended, the dementia was evident again).”

Anyone caring for a person with dementia will find information and validation in this book. There are resources listed and a bibliography. Most importantly Geist brings her journalist's instincts to bear on this incredibly difficult and stressful situation. She honestly discusses personal difficulties and offers concrete suggestions for coping. ( )

This was a truly heartbreaking read. Author Mary Ellen Geist is very candid with her experiences as a caretaker to her father suffering from Alzheimer's. She discusses how he deteriorates and how she and her family deal with each and every nuance of the disease. Her ability to put her feelings into words was the best part of the book for me. I could really feel what she was going through. I think any caretaker of an Alzheimer's patient would be able to relate to this book. One thing that I would have liked to have seen was an epilogue of sorts telling the reader what she and her father are doing now. The entire book was spent pulling the readers into her family's life and the end just stops with nothing to tell us how the story ends. Is she back to her "normal" life? Did her father finally have to go to a group home? The book doesn't tell us. ( )