Dementia: A Love Story

by Stephen Lewis

Overview

DEMENTIA ... HOW CAN IT BE A LOVE STORY?

Because the other morning as we were getting ready for the day, Carol said, in the plaintive tones she sometimes uses in articulating this word, "Steve," uttered with a look on her face that indicated something was bothering her, or perhaps scaring her. As I was standing right next to her bed, I took her hand, and said, "I am right here, Steve is right here," and gave her hand a little squeeze for emphasis.

"Thank God," she replied, articulating those two words quite clearly.

And that is how the love between dementia sufferer and dementia caregiver sustained them both as this disease did its terrible work ...

how they both somehow strengthened each other...

how in recording in journal form the jarring juxtaposition of the course of the disease and the necessary continuation of day to day life as best it could be managed ... how this book tells a love story like no other.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781950659944
Publisher:	Mission Point Press
Publication date:	04/20/2021
Pages:	378
Product dimensions:	6.14(w) x 9.21(h) x 0.84(d)

About the Author

Born and raised in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn, Stephen Lewis holds a doctorate in Puritan American Literature from New York University, and he is Professor of English Emeritus at Suffolk Community College, on Long Island, New York. He now lives in a restored farmhouse on Old Mission Peninsula in northern lower Michigan.
His first novel, The Monkey Rope was published in 1990 followed by And Baby Makes None (1991) two mysteries set in Brooklyn and published by Walker & Company. Mysteries of Colonial Times, were written for Berkley, and drew upon his expertise as a scholar of New England Puritanism. Murder On Old Mission, put out in 2005 by Arbutus Press, was a finalist in the historical fiction category of ForeWord Magazine's book of the year awards. His mystery novel, Stone Cold Dead, was submitted by Arbutus to the 2007 Edgars. Mission Point Press in 2017 reissued Murder On Old Mission and published its sequel Murder Undone.
He has published six college textbooks and now writes a regular column for the Traverse City Record Eagle. Most recently, he has arranged the posthumous publication of The Wolfkeeper, his wife's short story collection.
As his wife's caregiver during her losing battle with early onset dementia, he wrote a blog that became this book.

Editorial Reviews

"Stephen Lewis has accomplished a rare feat in writing the slow, painful erosion of Carol, his wife, a sufferer of early onset dementia, juxtaposed with the story of their love and the happy years before the disease stole her from herself. The subject of caregiving is universal; its expression in this memoir is unique. Two lives, beautifully lived, and beautifully written." -BookLife Prize 2021

From the Publisher