My Mother My Friend Forever

About the Book

In the Year 1918 the average price of a home was under five thousand dollars.  A new car could be purchased for less then four hundred dollars; a loaf of bread for ten cents and a postage stamp for three cents.  World War I was coming to an end and the first woman of a major party ran (unsuccessfully) for a Senate seat but most importantly this was the year my mother was born!  Her journey extended for almost eight-eight years.  Her last six years became the most profound, soul-searching and inspiring years of my life.  Her courage, faith and sense of humor brought us, mother and daughter, full circle.  Her disease could not conceal her undying faith and strengthened mine beyond my expectations.  This disease that I thought would swallow me up, with its many mysterious twists and turns surprisingly did not.  It renewed my spirit.  It enabled me to value life; each breath to its fullest extent.  Astonishingly, it also brought many years of laughter and joy.  As her caregiver I was to embark on my own journey; of the most unimaginable lessons I had yet to learn and we became soul-mates. 

About the Author

In the Year 2000 I was enjoying my role as a grandmother, a catechist and a part time student at a local university.   In October of this year while at work, I received a call from my mother who lived out of state, to “come and get me now”.  Hearing the urgency in her voice I drove to California the very next day.  She was waiting on the porch, wearing a flowered duster,  looking a little disheveled holding her purse in one hand and a plastic bag of ‘clothes’  with the other.   I, now, suspect my mother knew she had Alzheimer’s although we never discussed it.  There were times in the following years she believed me to be her mother.  I began to journal each night; perhaps to hold onto my position as her daughter, perhaps to hold onto my own reality, or perhaps simply to share my story on the value of life.