Parsing the Dragon: A Memoir

Susan Glenn Lampe's world shifts in 2006, when her father's illness summons her back to her hometown of Decatur, Illinois, from the Pacific Northwest. She finds her father on the mend, but his illness unmasks the hidden diagnosis of her mother's dementia. Sensing the end is near, Susan confronts her about their relationship. The author secretly calls her mother 'The Dragon.'

Throughout the following eight years, the two Glenn children struggle to keep their aging parents comfortable while th...