In the ten years since my dad was diagnosed with dementia—in our family, we have to call it memory loss—I’ve read every book, article, and guide on the topic. I’ve attended conferences and fundraisers and support groups, visited doctors, and sat on committees. Nothing helps. How can it, when nothing can stop that inexorable decline? So what, I thought, could this little book offer that was different? Conversations with a Sometimes Stranger (Oceanbooks) is an open letter from a woman to her husband, her lover of over 50 years, who is sliding into dementia. It is a mix of prose and poem and story: part confession, part absolution, all poignant. It is a diary of that bizarre and bewildering march into oblivion. Yet, in these pages, the author also holds out her hand, reaching out to spouses and caregivers and families with scenes all too terrifying and touching, and says: “See? You’re not alone.”
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