The Last Childhood: A Family Story of Alzheimer's
An estimated 50 million Americans are responsible for caring for a relative with Alzheimer!s disease"either at home or in a nursing home. Knowles, a freelance writer from North Carolina, offers a thoughtful account of how she and her three siblings dealt with the practicalities of finding appropriate care for their mother after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer!s: making difficult decisions about nursing-home placement, financial arrangements, and treatment options and coping with insensitive medical experts. The strength of her story lies in her honest account of watching her mother decline into an angry, violent person who no longer recognizes her daughter and bears little resemblance to her once loving and capable parent. As her mother!s condition deteriorates, Knowles ponders how to bring happiness to a parent!s life when memory is gone and only the senses remain.  We can touch. We can hold hands and hug. We can provide the best we have. Just as we would for a child.  Complementing Charles Pierce!s own memoir, Hard To Forget (LJ 4/15/00), this is suitable for aging collections. (This title appeared previously in a different form as Alzheimer!s: The Last Childhood, Research Triangle Publishing, 1997.)"Karen Ann Bensing, Benjamin Rose Inst. Lib., ClevelandCopyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.