Product Description
Death is never timely: it comes either too soon or too late. In The Year of Magical Thinking, Joan Didion recounts the aftermath of her husband's sudden death at the dinner table. At the other edge of

CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 4.5 based on 8 reviews)

A Straightforward Unsentimental Journey by Kevin Packer (Salt Lake City, Utah USA)

3 Stars
September 11, 2009
This is the first book I've read of Virginia Stem Owens and it's an engaging memoir. Her mother's illnesses propel the book in incremental fashion and points. If you are caring for an elderly parent or person (which I am) it is informative. If you are looking for sentimental memoir look elsewhere. I picked this book for that reason and to try to help me through the trials of my own life and it turned out to be the perfect choice. The trials Owens and her mother go through are heart wrenching and frustrating but she keeps the facts straight and the sentimentality low. She forges through all the trials with very little emotion. But the last chapter reels it all in and encircles you with hope and strength. It's a good, informative, strength building read.

Perfect Read by Sharon D. Ingram (Gilbertsville)

5 Stars
June 08, 2009
This book really hits home. If you or someone you know who has a close family member with Alzheimers, this is a must read.

A practical and yet sensitive guide for family caregivers of dementia patients by Mary Eve Peek (Foothills, California)

5 Stars
June 05, 2009
I bought two copies of this book, Caring for Mother, to share with my sisters. It captures the emotional pain of dealing with the mental decline of a loved parent, the desire to provide the best care possible with the dispair of knowing it is not enough, even then, to alleviate his/her suffering. The author captures the emotional roller-coaster well, and her reflections on herself as well as her research into the physical realities serve as a helpful resource to the reader. I especially valued her final realization that the struggle, while painful, can lead to a deeper awareness of the value and meaning of human life.

An Essential Book on Dementia and Caregiving by John Thorndike (Athens, OH United States)

5 Stars
March 16, 2009
Though the title did not sound promising, I try to read every personal account of Alzheimer's I come across, so I bought this book and sat down with it one night in my reading chair--and didn't get up for three hours. The writing was fluid, the characters strong, the dilemmas painful and eternal. "Caring for Mother" turned out to be both subtle and incisive, an essential book on dementia and patient care, perfectly contained in 163 pages. "This is not a cheerful book," Virginia Owens explains in her Opening Note, "but it is truthful." It's truthful, and it's vivid. The book has a story to tell, as it tracks the author's mother through an ever-increasing dementia toward what we know from the start will be a disaster. In the early chapters Virginia Owens helps look after her mother at home. Her mother has little faith in medicine: "She goes to the doctor the way I went to church as a teenager, bitter and under duress. She takes her pills like an apostate receiving communion, with little hope in their efficacy. A dark night for both soul and body." It's worse later, in the nursing home--that place, Owens says, "the name of which strikes terror into every person's heart." When she goes to visit her mother, most of the other residents ignore her. She doesn't blame them, "They had every right to their withdrawal. Only a handful of residents have visitors who come on even a weekly basis. Most are visited occasionally, some rarely or never. People who've been abandoned develop a thick coat of defensive frost." Owens' indictment of nursing homes is calm, steady, devastating. It's as abiding as the anger she sees in the residents: "You can feel it as soon as you come in the door. Cold Rage. For most of the people parked in wheelchairs, their anger has gone so stale after years of overuse that the emotion is routine now.... Anyone is culpable who comes through the front doors and is free to leave again under their own steam." Owens does her best for her mother, the best that she can manage. But what never goes away, she says, what "doesn't wear out or disappear, is the feeling--no, the certain knowledge--that I could have done more, done better." I could quote half this book, it's so good.

Caregiving by Eugene M. Keane (Madras, OR United States)

5 Stars
November 16, 2008
I have been taking care of my mother, who has Alzheimer's Disease, for a few years. More recently (6 mos ago) she has moved into my home. I laughed and cried when I read this book. I totally can related to each and every event. And yet, I feel privileged to be able to provide the care my mother needs at this time.

SIMILAR PRODUCTS

	The Undertaker's Wife: Wisdom and Musings; Life in a Small Town Funeral Home by Celia M. Hastings (Author), David Buttrick (Author), Helen DeVos (Author) The fascinating life journey of the wife of an undertaker will help those who are running too fast to pause to consider their own life journey. Through these wonderful stories readers will find a new appreciation of life as a gift to be celebrated now, and death as something to view without fear. A helpful and engaging story written by a woman who lives and ministers from the small town funeral home she and her husband own. A celebration of life through the lens of a small town funeral home...
	Longing for Enough in a Culture of More by Paul L. Escamilla (Author) Escape the lifestyle and attitudes of a weighed-down world. Brief, thoughtful chapters explore The Good Book, The Good Life, The Good Work, The Good Society, and The Good Earth. Whether read privately or with a group, these probing essays invite rather than indict the reader--making the 'life of enough' seem not only possible but a natural next step in our lives as Christians. A gifted writer, Escamilla leads the reader to anticipate both physical and spiritual relief from...
	My Tummy Talked in Church Today by Christy Colby Heno (Author), James W. Moore (Foreword)
	A Credible Witness: Reflections on Power, Evangelism and Race by Brenda Salter McNeil (Author), Tony Campolo (Foreword) Meet Jesus and Sam. Evangelist and teacher Brenda Salter McNeil thinks evangelism that only introduces people to Jesus is incomplete. The picture is much larger than that, she claims: Christ's death and resurrection reconcile us to God and to each other across gender, race and social lines. Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman, introduced here as Brenda's friend Sam, gives you the full picture of gospel reconciliation--reconciliation to God and to each other. In her powerful,...
	Mothering Mother: A Daughter's Humorous and Heartbreaking Memoir by Carol D. O'Dell (Author) Compelling and heartrending, this personal memoir chronicles the author's decision not to put her mother, who has Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease, in "one of those homes" and relays the far-reaching consequences this choice has on her entire family. Detailing the challenges of reversing roles and learning to mother one's own mother, this refreshing and entertaining autobiography will help those struggling with their own decisions on elder care in the home. It touches on the importance of...