Our longtime member, Dorothy Steele, has published a book about her journey through Alzheimer's Disease with her late husband, Acey. The book, "He Can't Help It. It's Alzheimer's", is available on Amazon. I would urge everyone to read this well written, heartwarming as well as heartbreaking story to which we can all relate.
From the book jacket - "A realistic portrayal of the great joy and terrible pain of loving and caring for someone as his or her mind and body fail, He Can't Help it. It's Alzheimer's, will inspire others as they care for their own loved ones.
Dorothy B. Steele Hi everyone. It's been a long time since I have posted but I have been reading. I had to reset my password to get on here. I guess you can tell what I have been doing. With everyone's encouragement that someone should write a book telling it like it is, I decided to give it my best shot. I was surprised that people who have never dealt with Alzheimer's are interested in my book. This is my way of getting the word out. I lowered my prices as best I could when I found out Joan had announced it on the forum. I checked and Amazon says I can't lower my price on the ebook right now but Createspace let me lower the paperback to 6.99. The ebook is 2.99. Here is the link: https://www.amazon.com/He-Cant-Help-Its.../dp/1532741979
He Can't Help It. It's Alzheimer's: A Husband and Wife's Battle with Dementia… AMAZON.COM
FayeBay*, you and I joined this site about the same time, so I was delighted to read about your accomplishment. It would not have been easy for you to go back and remember it all. Your book will help many people, I'm sure.
I'm half way through it already. In fact as soon as I'm done here tonight, I'm going to read some more. I'm finding it very interesting, truthful & it really sheds light on what goes on behind closed doors. Some things I can relate to, others I haven't had to deal with.
I finished the book by the second day...couldn't put it down. The harsh realities are laid bare, even I was astounded by what this woman had to deal with. Wow. I have had it comparatively easy. I don't think I would ever have had the physical strength, let alone the emotional strength, to do what she did.
Thank you Dorothy Steele, FayeBay! I hope you are suffering no extreme ill effects from this, although I'm pretty sure there must be lingering effects. Hopefully, writing the book has been cathartic for you.
Thanks, Wolf. I think of you often. You were a great supporter to me at the lowest point of my life. Mim, you are very perceptive. The first two years after Acy died I was a total wreck. I tried my best to keep coming back to the message boards but was to depressed. I bought a book by a writing coach. I started writing and it was very painful so I stopped. I started reading the book again and the coach said this was the time that most quit writing. She stated that she hoped her readers would continue writing. She believed that when a person had a story to tell they should tell it. With this encouragement I continued on. I had to take long breaks. One of the things that kept me going was this group's cry for someone to write the true story of what it was like taking care of a spouse with Alzheimer's. As I continued to write I found myself writing awhile then crying awhile. I realized that I was crying at the times where I wouldn't allow myself cry while it was happening. When I started my rewrites I cried. Then I found with each rewrite I cried less. By the time I finished I no longer cried. Although I do still cry when I read the last chapter. I have had great personal reviews but only one wrote a review on Amazon. What surprised me is that most of my readers are people interested in learning about Alzheimer's. As I recall everyone said more people should be educated about Alzheimer's. I kept this in mind when I wrote the book. I have to say, it's helping. You might be surprised at the people who buy the book and loan it out to others. There seems to be a thrist for knowledge.
I hope there is a thirst for the knowledge of the reality of this, although probably ones who have not been touched by this disease (is there anybody anymore?) don't care to know.
I read your book as soon as you told us it was available. I thought you did a great job and I read it in a day. Sorry I forgot to go back to Amazon to post a review...I just took care of that.
I just checked and I now have 3 reviews. All five stars. You have no idea what this means to me. It makes me cry that not only does someone want to read my book but they also approve of it. I realize that there will be some reviews that won't it so favorable. Amazon prepares us for this. My editor tried to get me to change some of my story to appeal to more people. She wanted me to change the way he talked to help the reader understand what he meant. The point of the story was to show how hard it was to understand him at times. Besides, who is to say what he meant. I almost didn't publish. I told a friend if I did that it would no longer me our story but would be the editor's fictional story. My friend told me to write it the way I wanted to. This is what I did.