Into the Shadows: A Journey of Faith and Love into Alzheimer's

Rating:
Summary: Not a "how to" book
Review: I was swept off my feet by this book. It is a love story between a man and his wife, Roberta, who was fighting the battle with Alzheimer's, and between both of them and God. The author's faith grew even as the strain of taking care of his wife increased. His training as a psychologist enabled him to reveal his feelings in many difficult circumstances and to empathize with the horrors that his wife was going through.  At times I cried and at other times I laughed.  This is not a how-to book.  Rather, it is a book written from the inner experience of the caregiver as he accompanied his wife day by day from the earliest days of her journey into this horrific disease, until the day he placed her in the keeping of professional caregivers.

Rating:
Summary: A new perspective on caring for an alzheimer's patient
Review: Many of my friends have watched their parents disappear into the strange world of Alzheimer's disease, and I read this book to try to understand a little more what they are going through. It is wonderful! The author is a trained psychologist, but he writes with tender romanticism about his beautiful, brilliant wife. Although we meet her as she is teetering over the edge into the darkness of dementia, he brings her vividly back to life by telling us about her as a young woman, a mother,a musician, college professor, community activist and good friend, so that we mourn with him as he watches the woman he knew disappear. He offers a lot of insight into how to understand the Alzheimer's patient and what kind of help the caregiver needs in order to make the right decisions. This book is not a downer, but ultimately a moving message about how great faithfulness makes life's sorrows bearable.