The Silver Lining of Alzheimer's

<p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>The author's mother endured a </span><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>20-year journey with Alzheimer's disease</strong><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)> and he and his wife Shari played a critical role in the last six years of managing her at-home care until she died at 95. They simultaneously cared for his father who had been his mom's chief caregiver until the age of 90 when he fell backward down a stairwell landed on his head and suffered a Traumatic Brain Injury. He entered a state of dementia quite suddenly and Eliezer and Shari moved into his parent's house-his childhood home-that very night.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>Gradually over time he discovered that in addition to the obvious tragic and sometimes violent stages of the disease progression </span><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>there were simultaneously many moments of genuine joy laughter and deep healing </strong><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>that occurred for him and his family. At one point he actually found himself being </span><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>grateful to Alzheimer's </strong><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>for restoring the mother-son love that had been mostly strained for much of his adult life.</span></p><p></p><p><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>This memoir of those caregiving years is an attempt to provide a balance to all the sad and often horrific accounts of Alzheimer's that are available in abundance by instead sharing the silver lining he discovered that </span><strong style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)>recast his whole experience in a positive light</strong><span style=color: rgba(15 17 17 1); background-color: rgba(255 255 255 1)> and he hopes to share that possibility and opportunity with others while not sugarcoating the many difficult trials they also endured.</span></p><p></p><p>The unique perspective presented in this work will provide other caregivers dealing with an Alzheimer's or dementia patient with a quite new and unique reframing of the whole experience-the silver lining-that the author hopes will lighten their load.</p>