Literature

When I read Still Alice I found I felt very uneasy as the main character, Alice was also a university lecturer as I was although she was a lot higher than I was. What then totally put me off was that, in her fifties, she got early onset Alzheimer's. I have absolutely no intention of seeing the movie.

Since Mum died I got a wonderful book out of the library about a mother with Alzheimer's. The daughter wrote the book and as she was writing it her parent's relationship was a major focus.

Alzheimer's, a love story

Vivienne Ulman

I found this book wonderful. She talks about her parent's early days in Australia as Jewish immigrants. Her father was an accomplished man who was well known in Australia. Throughout the book she weaves the story of her parent's life together which gives a great insight into both her parents. She wrote a journal during the time of her mother's progression through this disease. She writes letters to the mother who is no longer there and discusses her feelings for the person who is there now. I related to a lot of what she was saying, I think perhaps because of how frequently I saw Mum. She also describes her father and how he coped. I was fascinated and could not think of anyone I know who would be like him. I was also interested in the rest homes the mother had been in. I have to say that the family atmosphere that I encountered was certainly not apparent in these homes. Because it is hard to talk to others about what this experience is like ( it is one of those things that if you haven't actually done it while you may think you know what it is like the truth is that you don't ). Something I really envied was the family gathering and the time together for grieving and adjusting. My family were together for three days after Mum's death and these were very hectic days getting things done. While I know that was long enough for the others it was a lot more difficult for me and of course I then had my insular life style. I found that as I was reading this book I was comparing and identifying with all sorts of things she wrote about. This is a book I would recommend to anyone especially anyone who has been touched by someone with Alzheimer's. Something I really identified with was her descriptions of who her mother was and who she became. Although we were not Jewish there were a lot of parallels in our mothers.