Love and Little Birds
Wrestling with the Sadness of Dementia
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
We all know that the human brain is desperately fragile in some ways and incredibly powerful in many others. Dementia is the quintessential example of mental fragility, but dealing with dementia can awaken the full power of the brain in those who are obliged to care for its victims. This little book is the fusion of two “diaries” I have been writing in my attempts to come to grips with my own loss- the death from dementia of the love of my life almost three years ago. I started these diaries soon after I had committed her to the loving care of a facility specializing in dementia. There had been no time at all for writing in the final two years of my caregiving. The first section describes my attempts to grasp the meaning of dementia, and the second is a very personal chronicle of my tortuous journey through the ruins of my previous life into a new one.
It is not a terminally sad journey, and it’s not over yet. I have been helped along the way by good friends and by the staff of the hospice organization that took care of my wife in the end, especially through my participation in the support group they offer. The experience of dementia caregiving is unique and not fully comprehensible to those who have not lived it. A good support group can create a stunning bond between its members, springing from an awareness of the universality of human suffering and the fact that it can be overcome only by the power of universal compassion and love. It seems quite ironic that dealing with dementia, a disease that destroys the mind, can lead to such a hopeful conclusion. But I firmly believe that the vicissitudes of life are never so harsh and cruel that they cannot be borne and eventually reduced through those immediately accessible and understandable emotions of compassion and love. I have a hunch that we need not look too much further than that to discover the meaning of life itself. And that is what this book is about.
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
The human brain is desperately fragile in some ways and incredibly powerful in many others. Dementia is the quintessential example of mental fragility, but dealing with dementia can awaken the full power of the brain in those who are obliged to care for its victims. In Love and Little Birds, author John Radway shares the journal of his struggle to cope with the dementia that eventually claimed the life of his wife, Claire, at the age of seventy-five.
Divided into two parts, the first section describes Radway’s attempts to grasp the meaning of dementia, while the second section includes a very personal chronicle of his tortuous journey through the ruins of his previous life into a new one.
In this memoir, Radway seeks to provide guidance to others who are caring for someone struggling to deal with a dying mind—the sad prognosis for this disease. He communicates the emotional toll it takes on the caregivers, who are fully aware of what is happening to their loved one. Love and Little Birds provides raw insight into a caregiver’s world and shares the importance of taking care of the self so as not to be destroyed.
About the Author
John Radway is a retired attorney and farmer; he is originally from Hawaii but is now living in Arizona. His greatest joys have been his forty-nine-year marriage to the love of his life, Claire, who succumbed to dementia at the age of seventy-five and, now, helping those who care for dementia patients.