January 7, 2011
This is an eye-opening read for anyone who knows someone afflicted with this disease. After author Lauren Kessler — a University of Oregon professor — watched her own mother succumb to Alzheimer’s, she spent several months working as a front-line caregiver in a “memory care” facility. She chronicles that experience in this book, and introduces a number of the elderly people she cares for. I came away from this book with a new understanding of this disease — a less anguished understanding — as well as a great deal of empathy for the minimum-wage workers who do the difficult job of caring for Alzheimer’s patients. (Note: This book used to be called “Dancing With Rose.”)
