On Angels’ Wings, A Journey Through Alzheimer’s with My Mother

Posted On: Monday, May 1, 2017

Book Launch and Interactive Reading!

Alzheimer’s is the fastest growing fatal disease in the world today. Here in Massachusetts there are over  120,000 people living with it, nationally over 5 million, with another almost 16 million caregiver family members coping with it. As yet, there is no medical cure, no prevention, and no slowing of this disease, and numbers are set to increase dramatically over the next 25 years. Almost everyone knows someone affected by Alzheimer’s, and early-onset Alzheimer’s, which can occur as early as the 40’s, has brought AD out of the twilight of old age into the stark light of daily living.

Alzheimer’s is a disease. It is not mental illness, it is progressive neurological disease of the brain. As such, family members are not watching over the slow physical decline of a present loved one to a physical ailment such as cancer or MS, they are presiding over someone who develops severe behavioral issues that create erratic, chaotic living and foreign, often unpredictable, interactions and reactions. Along with this comes a horrifying loss of memory and their ability to express identity, complete role reversals, and the slow shut down of physical function – sight and hearing are mis-interpreted by an affected brain, memory of how to dress, eat, speak, etc, are affected leaving the person totally unable to self-care, and finally losing the automatic memory of how to

Deborah Strafuss

swallow and even breathe will eventually result in death. It is a total, and very slow, shut-down of most of the brain; the major organ we rely on to interpret, interact and function with in this world.

I could go on to tell you more, but I think this is enough of a backdrop for you to be able to set the words, the poetic and prosaic images of our journey, mom’s and mine, against, as we take an inside look at one person’s caregiver journey in On Angels’ Wings, A Journey Through Alzheimer’s with My Mother, in Concord, June 6. Holding the hand, and the spirit, of my mother throughout her journey with Alzheimer’s has been a life-changing experience, opening and widening my own spirit and lighting the fires of advocacy as I peer out into the future of my own life and the lives of my children.

Come and join me for inspiration and encouragement, for a real-life look at grief and triumph, death and life, with a good dose of practical help and wisdom – June 6th at the Concord Breakfast.

Please share one with a friend!

Can’t wait to see everyone there!  

  • Register for the Dream Factory Breakfast, June 6th:  HERE!

Deborah Lynn Strafuss, Reiki Master and Teacher, CDP, Poet, Author

menu