Inside the Dementia Epidemic: A Daughter's Memoir

When her mother, Judy, plunges her car into a snow bank, Martha Stettinius herself is snow blind and innocent of the truth. More than an illness, dementia is a fast-growing epidemic. Martha's dogged attempts to care for Judy soon make her an expert on this threat: 1 in 8 people over age 65 will have Alzheimer's disease or another dementia, and nearly half of us over age 85.

Deeply honest about the emotional gauntlet thrust upon her as she juggles family, job, and elder care, Martha has good reason to share it: most of us are likely to have to walk in her shoes. She's done it all--starting with taking her mother into her own home and coping with the tragi-comedies of her chain-smoking Mom and her nippy, small dog. Torn between her mother and preserving her own family's happiness, Martha guides us through assisted living, rehab, memory care, and a nursing home. Through skillful storytelling, she shares the bottom line that we all need to know: how to finance care, avoid pitfalls, sort out caregivers, evaluate a facility, and investigate more humane homes such as The Eden Alternative and Green House Project. She learns to overcome her challenging relationship with her mother, and to reach the deepest core of Judy's spirit.

Martha supplements this mother-daughter love story with facts and appendices reflecting the cutting edge of dementia research. When her mother eats only sweets, she explores the connexion: is Alzheimer's Type III Diabetes.  She refuses to surrender to hopelessness. She shares the ultimate guide to How to Save Yourself: an anti-dementia, anti-diabetic diet; and the newest medical tests. As Martha has learned to sit in silence and hold her mother's hand, she has also learned to speak up, research, and reach out to give us all new ways to win the war.