Dear Clueless – A Daughter's Journey Through Alzheimer's Caregiving
This is the story of my role as my mother's primary caregiver for the last 10 years of her life as she progressed from forgetfulness to full blown Alzheimer's disease. I morphed from flying from D.C. to West Palm Beach every 3 months to help her out....to moving her into our home in S.C.......to admitting her to a memory care unit......to her breaking her hip and dying 9 days later.
When people ask me about Mom, I tell them: She was very attractive. She cussed like a sailor and drank like a battalion of Marines. She never met a stranger. She never lost a friend. She never made more than minimum wage her entire life but was the most generous person I ever knew.
That personality was energizing and entertaining when she was fully cognizant. But with Alzheimer's, that personality became a 24 hour a day/7 day a week without a break challenge. I would do it again. However, I wish I knew then what I know now. If I can help even one person with their role as a caregiver for a loved one with Alzheimer's....then writing this book was worth every tear I cried.
About Sandra Savell (Aiken, South Carolina Author)
Sandra (Sandi) Savell published “Dear Clueless: A Daughter’s Journey Through Alzheimer’s Caregiving” in 2015. It is the story of a decade of caregiving as her mother progressed from forgetfulness, to not recognizing her daughter, and, eventually to her passing from complications of Alzheimer’s Disease.
Although Sandi had already experienced the deaths of her father, maternal grandmother, aunt and a cousin from Alzheimer’s; it was the day-to-day caregiving of her mother, Helen, that prompted her to write this book.