Inside the Dementia Epidemic: A Daughter’s Memoir | Donate, Get Pie!
Inside the Dementia Epidemic: A Daughter’s Memoir, is a book by Martha Stettinius of Syracuse, NY, an editor with a master’s in English Education from Teachers College, Columbia University, she love’s language and she plans to self-publish this important memoir and call to action. She needs financial help to get it on the shelves.
Learn more about Martha’s Kickstarter fundraising campaign, and how you can get acknowledged for your contribution with autographed copies, you or your loved one’s name listed in the book, or a home baked Finger Lakes specialty, the grape pie, made and shipped overnight express just for you.
The following from Martha’s Kickstarter fundraising campaign page:
READ AN EXCERPT FROM THE BOOK.
Why Support This Book Project?
Seven years ago, my mother, Judy, who is living with late-stage Alzheimer’s disease, moved in with me and my young family. I write about the challenges I faced as her dementia worsened, and how I sought help as she moved from her remote cottage on a lake in Upstate New York, to our home in a cohousing neighborhood, then to an assisted living facility, a rehabilitation center when she fell and suffered a fracture, a “memory care” facility for people with dementia, and a nursing home.
I believe that my book is unique and that it fills a real need. Most memoirs by adult children caring for a parent with dementia focus on the extreme stress and craziness of caregiving at home with little support. Few of these caregivers have written detailed and realistic scenes in multiple care settings, as I have; few describe how they found adequate support and resources; and few offer hope that the caregiving journey can be anything other than a crushing self-sacrifice. They describe dementia itself as a tragic wasting away and a long, painful good-bye—indeed, as the complete erasure of the person who once was. What I have experienced and felt with my mother is different, and I want to share our story. Through intimate and detailed scenes, I show how my mother is not an empty shell, as people with Alzheimer’s are often described, but still “Judy,” still here—a whole person able to love and be loved.
Our years together have presented twists and turns that I never expected, transforming our troubled relationship, and affecting me profoundly.
It’s More Than Memoir
Inside the Dementia Epidemic is more than memoir, though—it’s a call to action. I write about why I support certain cutting-edge movements in elder care such as the Eden Alternative® and The Green House Project®. And I summarize the latest dementia research, ways we might be able to avoid developing dementia ourselves, and the need for an immediate and substantial increase in research funding.
Visit the web site for the book, www.insidedementia.com or contact Martha: martha@insidedementia.com.
