Book Review
Marian Ritchie has written a detailed account of her role as caregiver to her husband Edwin. The joys, the frustrations, the humor, the exhaustion.
Other people's accounts of their role as a caregiver are so important. It helps people see they are not alone. Marian Ritchie's book also provides helpful tips and essential information to everyone caring for people with Alzheimer's. Her book is informative and moving. Her very personal account of their lives takes you on their journey of how she learns how the changes in his personality affect every aspect of hers.
The detail of their lives together with Alzheimer's disease, conversations, his behavior and her reactions to it give you such insight into the disease. Marian Ritchie is fantastic. She reflects on her caregiving skills and tries to learn day to day on the best strategies to make their lives better and easier.
In the end Edwin's challenging and difficult behavior means Marian has to send him into a nursing care facility. She is exhausted. Years of disrupted sleep and the burden of caregiving have taken their toll. Marian cannot cope any more and she can no longer keep him safe. She fears for her own safety. Edwin is turning the home upside down in his nightly rampages and he attacks her again. It is so sad. One thing you know by the end of the book is how lucky Edwin was having her love and care.
A great book for all caregivers, health care professionals, family and friends of someone with Alzheimer's disease. Caregivers will enjoy and learn a lot from this book by Marian Ritchie.
The Long Way Home. A Journey Through Alzheimer's by Marian Ritchie Published by Harpo Press Ontario Canada
05/02/2006
