Alzheimer’s!
In 2002 JoAnn’s husband was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It changed both of their lives.
When she started this journey, facing uphill battles and uncertainties, JoAnn wondered if she would find enough strength to go through it, and how. She wished that she knew what was to come so she could be prepared. And she wished for a light in the darkness, however dim and distant, to point the way, to show her the end, and to give her hope.
Alzheimer’s diagnosis is a curse that takes with it many victims. Close friends and loved ones are forced to witness the painful deterioration of the afflicted, and increasingly they have to step in to compensate for the lost abilities of the ill person. In 2018 alone, more than 16.1 million family members and other unpaid caregivers provided an estimated 18.5 billion hours of unpaid care.
This might be a story of yours one day, or a friend or loved one of yours.
But you don’t have to do it alone.
JoAnn and her husband in their home, 2003.
Navigating Alzheimer’s.
In this book, JoAnn invite you into her world of caregiving as a well spouse. As the one who has left the troubled waters behind and remains standing, she offers her stories to other well spouses, family caregivers, and those who care. When you are experiencing sorrow, fear, frustration, agony, exhaustion, and depression, and when the level of stress makes you feel on the verge of a total breakdown, know that you are not alone. There is not the way, there is not a single right way, and there is definitely not an easy way, but there are paths through this arduous terrain. Many have found a way, and some ways are better than others. JoAnn found hers, and she wishes you success in finding yours.
Wrestling with inevitable questions.
Central to her book are questions well spouses and other family caregivers inevitably encounter:
How does love endure through the mundane tasks and the drudgery of caregiving that may last years or even decades?
What does triumph mean when fighting a war with a disease that has no cure?
How do we draw strength from our past experiences to go on?
How can we all find our way on the difficult journey of caring for loved ones with Alzheimer’s?
This book is about compassion, love and intimacy; jealousy and acceptance; happiness and sorrow; hope and despair; deceptions and betrayal; illness, death and grief; human frailty and, above all, resilience and perseverance.
JoAnn with her husband in Alaska, 2006.
JoAnn with her husband (back row) and her mom and dad from Shanghai, Christmas 2007.
Sharing Support.
This book is about offering support, understanding, and validation to well spouses everywhere. It is her experience of navigating love, acceptance, daily needs, and the end of life as a well spouse, told with honesty, candor, humor, and intimacy. JoAnn’s stories are not universal solutions, but they do address universal questions. As a well spouse from a different country who moved to the U.S. as an adult, she also offers a cross-cultural perspective that may enrich our shared understanding of humanity and add a new dimension of this journey.
