Diana Friel McGowin was only forty-five years old when she began to struggle with the memory lapses and disorientation that signal the onset of Alzheimer's disease. In this powerful and moving book - the first intimate account written by an A.D. sufferer - McGowin not only chronicles her battle against devastating illness but captures forever the thoughts that for her have become all too fleeting.
The haunting feeling that there is less of you today than there was yesterday. The unceasing pressure to "pass" as healthy - and the terrifying struggle to accept the fact that you are not. These are the bittersweet emotions and terrible anxieties that all Alzheimer's sufferers share - but rarely voice. With unflinching honesty, Diana McGowin reveals what it is like to forget your children's names, to have a lifetime of professional achievement wiped from your memory...to inhabit a healthy body with an ebbing mind. And with heart-wrenching clarity, she describes how dementia transforms the family, turning unprepared spouses and children into ill-equipped and sometimes unwilling caregivers.
But her message is ultimately one of hope. With extraordinary eloquence and compassion, McGowin reaches out to offer her "fellow travelers" the simple comforts they need most: a sense of direction rather than destination - and the hope of healing whether or not there is a cure.