Alzheimer's Love Quotes

You're so beautiful," said Alice. "I'm afraid of looking at you and not knowing who you are." "I think that even if you don't know who I am someday, you'll still know that I love you." "What if I see you, and I don't know that you're my daughter, and I don't know that you love me?" "Then, I'll tell you that I do, and you'll believe me.

Every time I read to her, it was like I was courting her, because sometimes, just sometimes, she would fall in love with me again, just like she had a long time ago. And that's the most wonderful feeling in the world. How many people are ever given that chance? To have someone you love fall in love with you over and over?

To care for those who once cared for us is one of the highest honors.

Affirmations are our mental vitamins, providing the supplementary positive thoughts we need to balance the barrage of negative events and thoughts we experience daily.

Love is blind, there was no doubt about it. In Tara's case it was also deaf, dumb, dyslexic, had a bad hip and the beginnings of Alzheimer's

Caregiving often calls us to lean into love we didn't know possible.

In the heart or every caregiver is a knowing that we are all connected. As I do for you, I do for me.

ولأن الإنسان منذ طفولته يرى والدَيْه في صورة الأقوياء القادرين على مواجهة مصاعب الحياة، فإن رؤية الضعف الذي يستنزفهما بالتدريج تكون أصعب من رؤية ذلك يحدث للآخرين

I love you but I got to love me more.

If ever the day comes when he wakes beside me and my name doesn't come to his lips, when that bewildered look in his eyes doesn't fade away, I'll remember for us both. I won't let him forget the life we built together. I won't let him go.

Age isn't stealing from my grandmother; it's slowly unwinding her.

Many of us follow the commandment 'Love One Another.' When it relates to caregiving, we must love one another with boundaries. We must acknowledge that we are included in the 'Love One Another.

Love's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks Within his bending sickle's compass come: Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks, But bears it out even to the edge of doom.

I can’t stand the thought of looking at you someday, this face I love, and not knowing who you are.

People think it's just forgetting your keys, she says. Or the words for things. But there are the personality changes. The mood swings. The hostility and even violence. Even from the gentlest person in the world. You lose the person you love. And you are left with the shell... And you are expected to go on loving them even when they are no longer there. You are supposed to be loyal. It’s not that other people expect it. It’s that you expect it of yourself. And you long for it to be over soon.

The phrase 'Love one another' is so wise. By loving one another, we invest in each other and in ourselves. Perhaps someday, when we need someone to care for us, it may not come from the person we expect, but from the person we least expect. It may be our sons or daughter-in-laws, our neighbors, friends, cousins, stepchildren, or stepparents whose love for us has assigned them to the honorable, yet dangerous position of caregiver.

I've had an amazing life. One filled with blessings I could never have imagined. Depressed is the last thing I am. Realistic, yes. Sad, never.

Accepting the fact that she did indeed have Alzheimer's, that she could only bank on two unacceptably effective drugs available to treat it, and that she couldn't trade any of this in for some other, curable disease, what did she want? Assuming the in vitro procedure worked, she wanted to live to hold Anna's baby and know it was her grandchild. She wanted to see Lydia act in something she was proud of. She wanted to see Tom fall in love. She wanted one more sabbatical year with John. She wanted to read every book she could before she could no longer read. She laughed a little, surprised at what she'd just revealed about herself. Nowhere in that list was anything about linguistics, teaching, or Harvard. She ate her last bite of cone. She wanted more sunny, seventy-degree days and ice-cream cones.

Never give up hope. If you do, you'll be dead already.--Dementia Patient, Rose from The Inspired Caregiver

once Alzheimer’s does what it do you never really have conversations it’s more a man becomes a poem a lot of repetition & love with something indecipherable in between.

Diagnosis doesn't mean you are dying tomorrow. Keep living. You won't lose your emotional memory. You'll still be capable of understanding love and joy. You might not remember what I said 5 minutes ago or even who I am but you'll remember how I made you feel. You are more than what you can remember.

But Marisa already knew the answer and it was too late for recrimination. The chance of even a rational discussion of the problem was forever shut out of Mama’s brain. A brutal bastard was steadily sucking the intelligence and the very life from the mother who had once been witty, wise and loving. The scourge had a name Marisa had come to equate with hell: Alzheimer’s Disease.

Love is not just blind, it's deaf and dumb and probably has an advanced case of Alzheimer's; it's unhinged...

Butterfly Kisses Aged imperfections stitched upon my face years and years of wisdom earned by His holy grace. Quiet solitude in a humble home all the family scattered now like nomads do they roam. Then a gift sent from above a memory pure and tangible wrapped in innocence and unquestioning love. A butterfly kiss lands gently upon my cheek from an unseen child a kiss most sweet. Heaven grants grace and tears follow as youth revisits this empty hollow.

I am a wife, mother, and friend, and soon to be grandmother, I still feel, understand, and am worthy of the love and joy in those relationships. I am still an active participant in society. My brain no longer works well, but I use my ears for unconditional listening, my shoulders for crying on, and my arms for hugging others with dementia. Through an early stage support group...by talking to you today, I am helping others with dementia live better with dementia. I am not someone dying. I am someone living with Alzheimer's. I want to do that as well as I possibly can.

I believe that most caregivers find that they inherit a situation where they just kind of move into caregiving. It's not a conscious decision for most caregivers, and they are ultimately left with the responsibility of working while still trying to be the caregiver, the provider, and the nurturer.- Sharon Law Tucker

Brace yourselves, girls: Soda is liquid Satan. It is the devil. It is garbage. There is nothing in soda that should be put into your body. For starters, soda’s high levels of phosphorous can increase calcium loss from the body, as can its sodium and caffeine. [Cousens, Conscious Eating, 475] You know what this means—bone loss, which may lead to osteoporosis. And the last time we checked, sugar, found in soda by the boatload, does not make you skinny! Now don’t go patting yourself on the back if you drink diet soda. That stuff is even worse. Aspartame (an ingredient commonly found in diet sodas and other sugar-free foods) has been blamed for a slew of scary maladies, like arthritis, birth defects, fibromyalgia, Alzheimer’s, lupus, multiple sclerosis, and diabetes.2 When methyl alcohol, a component of aspartame, enters your body, it turns into formaldehyde. Formaldehyde is toxic and carcinogenic (cancer-causing). 3 Laboratory scientists use formaldehyde as a disinfectant or preservative. They don’t fucking drink it. Perhaps you have a lumpy ass because you are preserving your fat cells with diet soda. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has received more complaints about aspartame than any other ingredient to date.4 Want more bad news? When aspartame is paired with carbs, it causes your brain to slow down its production of serotonin.5 A healthy level of serotonin is needed to be happy and well balanced. So drinking soda can make you fat, sick, and unhappy.

I don't regret any of the treatments we tried or the care-giving I did. My only regret is that I wasn't able to cure him.

There are around six million people with Alzheimer’s in the United States.

Almost two-thirds of these six million people are women. Almost two-thirds of the caregivers for those Alzheimer’s patients are also women.

The thing about Alzheimer’s is the grieving process begins long before your loved one dies. You lose her before you actually lose her. It is a pain unlike any I had experienced.

Tell me all the things I'm going to forget." "With every person it's different." "Will I forget to love you?" "I hope not." "Don't let me forget to love you.

Love is blind, there was no doubt about it. In Tara’s case it was also deaf, dumb, dyslexic, had a bad hip and the beginnings of Alzheimer’s.

You wouldn’t understand, of course, but the bond between a mother and child, it’s . . . how best to describe it . . . unbreakable. The two of us are linked forever, you see—same blood in my veins that’s running through yours. You grew inside me, your teeth and your tongue and your cervix are all made from my cells, my genes. Who knows what little surprises I left growing inside there for you, which codes I set running? Breast cancer? Alzheimer’s? You’ll just have to wait and see. You were fermenting inside me for all those months, nice and cozy, Eleanor. However hard you try to walk away from that fact, you can’t, darling, you simply can’t. It isn’t possible to destroy a bond that strong.

As the dementia progresses and the person develops trouble with coordination and language, it is easy to forget his need to experience pleasant things and to enjoy himself. Never overlook the importance of hand holding, touching, hugging, and loving.

He was having one of those lucid moments that make you, as a loved one of an Alzheimer's victim, forget for a minute or two that this is all really happening. You can forget about the disease and its toll and confusion and suddenly engage with the same person with whom you conversed profoundly for so many years, until it all started to go haywire. In that moment I wanted to know what I think so many Alzheimer's caregivers crave to understand: Do you know what has become of you? Can you, so lucid now, see how you act when you are not like you are now? Does it make you sad? Does it make you ashamed? The reprieve right there at the red light was momentary, even illusory. But there for the taking, right in front of me--so obvious that I almost panicked over what to talk about. Do we discuss his beloved baseball? His beloved grandchildren? Me--how I'm doing, how much I miss him? No. As much out of curiosity as concern, I wanted to talk about him. "Dad," I said, "you are losing your mind. You know that. How does that make you feel? How are you doing with that?" "I'm doing the best I can with what God has given me," he said.

What made Olive the saddest about the Gardners was that everyone wanted to be enshrined in someone’s memory. It was the only way of living on after death, really: in the minds of loved ones. Memories were the only things that made aging bearable, a way of reverting to better, simpler days.

Diane Gonclaves DeLuna and her mother, Mary for whom my heroine is named for. Diane and I met on Facebook, but we soon learned we have one thing (besides romance novels) in common. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer’s and min suffered from Dementia. Both of us wish we only had the love of romances in common.   Jane

Those neurons, the brain’s soldiers, march for years, from the time we’re born, through the byways of the brain, setting actions into motion, rolling away boulders of all kinds, and then, with Alzheimer’s, they’re blocked by trees down at one end of the road, dangling wires at another. Over the years, the brain’s soldiers—this well-trained and reliable army, which has done so much, on so many different terrains, gone high and low, swum, climbed, strolled, and marched to all the different destinations of the mind—begin to falter, long before outsiders can see the troubles. Eventually (five years on for some, three for others, ten for some), the obstacles cannot be overcome. Messages cannot be received.

couldn’t understand why I cried nonstop during these phone calls. I was sure that Brian had Alzheimer’s before the MRI; I’d thought, It’s not a surprise. But it was a surprise the way every bad thing, even as you see the flames in the distance, even as the terrible thing is upon you, breathing in your ear, hammering on your narrow bones, is still a surprise.

Some 30 years ago, I was influenced by Dr. J Robertson McQuilkin, who was president of Columbia Bible College in Columbia, SC, a great Bible teacher and Christian leader. His wife developed short-term memory loss, and then she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in the early 1980’s. He abruptly resigned his position, cared for her full time and then wrote a book, A Promise Kept. I remember thinking that he must really love his wife! God used this man’s example and his relationship with his wife to plant thoughts and feelings that would grow year by year, and be used to mold Gini and my relationship to one another and the importance of our marriage vows to one another “in the sight of God and these witnesses”. I now know that the “witnesses” include many who are still observing us today, as the Lord helps us to graciously love one another completely and unreservedly “til death do us part” If you have not watched this video with our vows and voices, please do so or pass this message on. On the website as alternate video just below the main one or http://vimeo.com/65673042 To get the book Gini and I wrote, www.ReadTheJourneyHome.com

Two fifty-five. It’s go time.” Chris unlocks the doors and gets out and hides behind an oak tree in the yard. My adrenaline is pumping as I hop out of Chris’s car, grab Kitty’s bike out of her trunk, and push it a few houses. Then I set it on the ground and drape myself over it in a dramatic heap. Then I pull out the bottle of fake blood I bought for this very purpose and squirt some on my jeans--old jeans I’ve been planning on giving to Goodwill. As soon as I see Trevor’s car approaching, I start to pretend sob. From behind the tree Chris whispers, “Tone it down a little!” I immediately stop sobbing and start moaning. Trevor’s car pulls up beside me. He rolls down the window. “Lara Jean? Are you okay?” I whimper. “No…I think I might have sprained my ankle. It really hurts. Can you give me a ride home?” I’m willing myself to tear up, but it’s harder to cry on cue than I would have thought. I try to think about sad things--the Titanic, old people with Alzheimer’s, Jamie Fox-Pickle dying--but I can’t focus. Trevor regards me suspiciously. “Why are you riding your bike in this neighborhood?” Oh no, I’m losing him! I start talking fast but not too fast. “It’s not my bike; it’s my little sister’s. She’s friends with Sara Healey. You know, Dan Healey’s little sister? They live over there.” I point to their house. “I was bringing it to her--oh my God, Trevor. Do you not believe me? Are you seriously not going to give me a ride?” Trevor looks around. “Do you swear this isn’t a trick?” Gotcha! “Yes! I swear I don’t have your name, okay? Please just help me up. It really hurts.” “First show me your ankle.” “Trevor! You can’t see a sprained ankle!” I whimper and make a show of trying to stand up, and Trevor finally turns the car off and gets out. He stoops down and pulls me to my feet and I try to make my body heavy. “Be gentle,” I tell him. “See? I told you I didn’t have your name.” Trevor pulls me up by my armpits, and over his shoulder Chris creeps up behind him like a ninja. She dives forward, both hands out, and claps them on his back hard. “I got you!” she screams. Trevor shrieks and drops me, and I narrowly escape falling for real. “Damn it!” he yells. Gleefully Chris says, “You’re done, sucker!” She and I high-five and hug. “Can you guys not celebrate in front of me?” he mutters. Chris holds her hand out. “Now gimme gimme gimme.” Sighing, Trevor shakes his head and says, “I can’t believe I fell for that, Lara Jean.” I pat him on the back. “Sorry, Trevor.” “What if I had had your name?” he asks me. “What would you have done then?” Huh. I never thought of that. I shoot Chris an accusing glare. “Wait a minute! What if he had had my name?” “That was a chance we were willing to take,” she says smoothly.

Imagine that you are caring for a mother dying of advanced Alzheimer’s disease. You quit your job to cook, clean, and bathe your parent. Meanwhile, you see your mother’s faculties, memories, and personality slowly fade. This may be the most emotionally exhausting time in your life. You suffer because your loved one suffers. Yet, spiritual growth will certainly follow if you opened yourself to care for that parent. You will have learned how to sacrifice with unconditional love, thereby passing an important lesson on earth school.

I’ve concluded that families of those with Alzheimer’s come in four distinct categories. 1. The first group is one we see the most. They laugh and visit the best they can, still enjoying the company of the person they love. 2. The second group comes a little less often. Instead of laughter, they may be brought to tears. 3. The third group sits mortified, frozen by their surroundings, near as helpless as the person they’ve come to visit. To all of these people I say, “Thank you.” 4. The last group we don’t see because they are never here. There are instances where these families simply do not exist, but too often the hard truth is that they are busy elsewhere.

People would ask, "Why don't you put her in a nursing home?" I always answered, "I feel it is my responsibility, because she's my wife and Heather's mother. I love her and it's my job to take care of her for as long as I physically and mentally can." Every day, I would rush home at lunch, prepare her something to eat and drive her around a little, too. She loved to ride in the car and that seemed to keep her smiling. By late October, she had really gone down. We were playing Ole Miss in Oxford, in a game that is probably best remembered for David Palmer replacing an injured Jay Barker and putting on a show that had Heisman voters buzzing. Sadly, what I remember most was getting off the team plane and calling home. Charlotte didn't answer and I began to panic and started calling some of our neighbors. I finally reached one of the neighbors and she went to the house and found Charlotte just staring ahead. I don't think Charlotte ever answered the phone again.

There's a big Alzheimer's benefit in a couple of weeks. A charity ball is right after that. We eat, we smile, we pose. No balls. None. I'm sorry to hear that. Have you talked to a doctor?

The literature has only these words of comfort for a patient and her family at this stage. Remember, there is still a living spirit inside this diminished person, the spirit of someone you love.

ahead and do this. If you will reach a point at which you will need Medicaid to pay for your loved one’s nursing-home care, Medicaid will require you to take some of the last remaining funds and preplan the funeral, to be sure that your loved one’s estate provides the funds for this final act.

When you feel yourself getting frustrated, let go of whatever is causing that feeling. Your loved one will only feel the frustration, and not remember or understand the reason. They'll blame themselves.

I’ve never heard anyone call Alzheimer’s evil,” I said to him. “Then you’ve never watched someone you love slip away because of it.” He gave me a sad smile then. The pain behind it was tangible. He went on, staring out over the water as he spoke. “In some cases, it’s like they submerge into . . . I don’t know what. The collective. The otherworld. The beyond. They’re so close to death, they dip into it. And they’re gone from us for a while. Still here, but in another world, too, at the same time. They don’t know us. Don’t remember our names or anything about the life we lived together. But then, without warning, they can pop up. Put their heads above the surface. They slip back into our world and know us. They can call us by name. They become themselves again for a brief moment. Just a brief moment. Then it’s back down into the abyss.” He took a deep breath. “You wonder where they go, when they’re in that abyss.

Minimize the fear of caring for someone with dementia, and preserve the caregiver’s sanity with personal, functional tips to understand and cope with the disease.

I actually wanted to do it. Much like the way many women want to stay home with their kids at the beginning of their lives, I wanted to stay home with my mom at the end of hers.

Women in their sixties are twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s as they are to develop breast cancer.

I had convinced myself that everyone expected me to take care of my mom because I didn’t have a job while taking care of my mom was the reason I didn’t have a job in the first place.

I felt like I was losing my mind. I had no life and no identity outside of taking care of my mom. Even when I wasn’t with my mom, I was thinking about her and doing things for her and my dad. I never stopped thinking about them. It consumed my whole entire life.

As the level of care increases, your role will shift. The type of care needed will be based on keeping your loved one comfortable and staying connected to them. Helpful caregiving principles at this stage include: •Closeness beyond words •The importance of touch •Eyes closed, ears and heart open •New and quieter ways of being together

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One of the things Mom’s journey with dementia has taught me is this: Life is in the small things, like the word “Amen”—a simple agreement, a yes to words prayed, and a statement claiming the promises of God. I’ve cried and begged for Mom not to have to go through this valley of loss, but it has come regardless. Now my one plea is that—in all that she has or will lose—she will never lose the love of God and her family. That is a truth worth saying “Amen” to.

STEP ONE: DECIDE & GET THE INFORMATION YOU NEED 1. Decide what you truly want for your life physically. What is the result that you’re truly after? Do you want more energy? More vitality? More strength? More flexibility? Do you want to start to rejuvenate your body? Revitalize it? Bring more youth to it? 2. Get the information that you need. Get yourself tested, so you can maximize your energy by: Knowing whether there are toxic metals in your system that are getting in the way of your well-being. Knowing if your hormones are in balance, which can make a giant difference in how you feel day to day. And then ideally, do the things that will give you peace of mind for yourself and for your family. Get the GRAIL test plus a full-body MRI so that you can know that there’s nothing to be concerned about with cancer. GRAIL can even be done even in your home, with a simple blood test. If it’s appropriate, I would consider scheduling a CCTA Test so that you know exactly where your cardiovascular health is and what needs to be done to stay strong and healthy for years to come. Consider getting the Alzheimer’s Test so that you know if you’re genetically predisposed, and also come up with a lifestyle plan that will reduce your risk. If you do this far enough in advance, there are a variety of tools in this book that can make a difference. Who’s in your family or friendship base whom you would like to also make sure gets tested to look out for their well-being and help them to maximize the quality of their life. Last, if you want to have some fun, you can discover what your true age is. As I mentioned earlier, I was thrilled to discover that my chronological age of 62 is only 51 years biologically. I think you’ll be surprised. If it’s not where you want it to be, there are so many things within these pages that you can do to change it.

STEP TWO: REVIEW YOUR EDUCATION If you’ve read this book, congratulations! You’ve given yourself a tremendous education. But knowledge isn’t power; it’s potential power. Decide what tools do you want to access today. And what do you want to keep track of in the future? 1. Are stem cells something that you want to pursue for some aspect of your life or for someone in your family? 2. Do you want to implement Dr. Sinclair’s Four Vitality Ingredients that help reverse biological aging? Or tap into the energy force of NMN? 3. Or, are there some technologies that you’ll want to keep track of so that you have them when you need them? Perhaps the Wnt Pathway for Osteoarthritis? 4. Is there anyone in your family or people you know whom you want to share information with about what you’ve learned here in the big 6—heart disease, diabetes/obesity, stroke, cancer, autoimmune disease, and Alzheimer’s? 5. Are you going to keep track of Gene Therapy and CRISPR and some of the transformations it’s creating? 6. Do you know anyone who has Parkinson’s or severe addiction who could feel relief from focused Ultrasound without brain surgery? Make a list of the things that you want to act on and things you want to keep track of, so that if you or anyone you know who needs help, you’ll have answers that you can share with them and that they can consider with their doctor. Just create a little checklist for yourself. The book is here. It’s the ultimate resource you can go back to as often as you need.

Think of parents bringing up children who afford them little respect, disobey them, or are overtly rude. Think of men and women striving to love husbands or wives who are sullen, uncommunicative, or mean. Think of children caring for aging parents who have turned truculent. A friend told me that shortly after his father had developed Alzheimer’s disease, he became astonishingly callous. “Shut up!” he would say to the son who was caring for him. “I hate you!” It’s hard to give yourself, to say in all these situations, “This is my body (energy, emotion, strength), given for you.” Two things that strengthened Jesus can strengthen us. First, Jesus did this for God the Father. God sees our hidden sacrifices and knows their cost, even when others don’t. Second, with this kind of radical self-gift can come new life. We give not because Christianity is a masochistic religion, but because it is a way of love and a path to life. Jesus’s death on the Cross led to an outpouring of love and an explosion of new life. So Jesus says, “Do this in memory of me,” not simply to the priest who celebrates Mass, but to all who would give their own lives out of love.

I Understand Mom The fog wraps around her mind bits and pieces of tattered thought become blank within her eyes minutes ago is gone, the sadness inside. Reaching for a wonderful memory that was just an hour ago you fight so hard to bring it back until you finally let it go. I’m sorry, I don’t remember as the tears reach her face tears roll down a beautiful smile while your days are being erased. I understand Mom; I’m here for you there’s blessings at our door God is here, He will guide us through with His love and so much more.

It is true that scientists and doctors use the word clinically, and it is also true that patients and their loved ones don’t always know what to make of it, especially when they first receive the diagnosis. It is too imprecise, for one thing. Dementia can be a spectrum, ranging from mild to severe, and some of the causes of dementia are entirely reversible. Alzheimer’s disease, which accounts for more than half the cases of dementia, gets nearly all the attention, and as a result, the terms dementia and Alzheimer’s are often used interchangeably. They shouldn’t be. The word dementia, however, is steeped in our common vernacular, and so is the association with Alzheimer’s disease. In this book, I use both terms with the hope that the conversation, and the words we use to describe the broad condition of cognitive decline, will shift in the future.

the person’s memory is or how strange his behavior, he is still a unique and special human being. We can continue to love a person even after he has changed drastically and even when we are deeply troubled

Seventy percent of caregivers say they feel unable to leave their loved one alone, even in their home.

Barry, júrame que no dejarás que te olvide, que nos olvide. ¡Júramelo!

Each day do something to make others smile and your heart sing.

Prayer," she said, "is not really about the prayer, whatever you've been praying for. It's about trust, trust in your faith, trust you are being heard, trust that you are not alone. Prayer is about trust more than answers. Sometimes it is the only healthy way to channel your anger. ... Anger is fear turned inside out.

Was a miracle just a matter of luck? Or did faith itself bring healing? Could love of God help free one from suffering or grant one the grace to bear it? A deliverance rather than an old-fashioned Biblical healing. Is love the one miracle we always have?

Can love too travel distance similarly? The love of two people joined, the love of people at a distance, the love from heaven, the love from God. Does the velocity of love cover all distance in different ways?

The now is where our faith intersects with our lives, where each day is another step on that journey of faith.

Ultimately gratitude is a gift to oneself. Voltaire said it best: 'Appreciation is a wonderful thing. It makes what is excellent in others belong to us as well.

Faith. So much of our lives pivot on this one fundamental, spiritual truth. Without it we are adrift. Sometimes faith is the question, sometimes it is the answer, and sometimes it is both.

She said a prayer for patience. Sometimes I wonder if that's the prayer God hears from us most.

As I sat on a bench in Stuyvesant Park gazing at the fountain I thought about the nature of miracles. Miracles of science like the MRI machine I'd just spent some time in. The miracle of a lost man being looked over by the angels. The miracle of a tree that's grown for over 200 years. All around us are miracles if we merely open our eyes to God's grace and glory. ... the words of St. Augustine. 'Miracles are not a contradiction to nature. They are only in contradiction with what we know of nature.

Perhaps you feel as if you are being tested. But never forget that even in the throes of that feeling you are loved by God and saved by that love. So is your mother. All He asks is that we love each other. All you can do now for your mother is pray for her. Prayer is the greatest form of love, for yourself, for others, for God. With prayer you are never powerless, and never alone.

I absolutely love the Bible. I hold it in high esteem and take great joy in connecting with God through Scripture. But I also recognize that it was never intended to be a medical or scientific text. It doesn't tell us how to perform lifesaving open-heart surgery. It doesn't explain how to treat diabetes, cancer, or Alzheimer's disease. It also doesn't tell us how to treat mental illness or trauma.

When someone you love has dementia, you too experience a form of anticipatory grief, but yours may extend over a longer period of time (for some, as long as 20 years) and be socially unrecognized and surrounded by uncertainty.

I didn’t understand grief. I thought grief was something that happened when someone you love dies, not when they are still alive.

Katie informed us that there was a life ever after, a place called Heaven or Eternal Rest where there was no pain or suffering. She forewarned him of his death and his Alzheimer Disease disappeared. He saw a fast rewind replay of his life and he regained his sanity on his deathbed he got an opportunity to say thanks for everything and goodbye to his loved ones. His gift to Emma was a kiss sealing the gift of a ghost whisperer to Emma so he will never abandon her or the kids. They will communicate forever. He will help her through this life and return watching over her and navigate a path for her into the next life, Heaven

The day the roles reverse is foreign. It’s a clumsy dance of love and responsibility, not wanting to cross any lines of respect. It’s honoring this person who gave their life to you—not to mention literally gave you life—and taking their fragile body in your hands like a newborn, tending to their every need.

The thing about Alzheimer’s is the grieving process begins long before your loved one dies. You lose her before you actually lose her. It is a pain unlike any I had experienced. It was a very surreal time. Feels like limbo, neither here nor there, just waiting...when your time is up.

Spirits that piggyback may not have been connected here in the physical world, but because they are connected to you, they’re connected on the Other Side when preparing for a group reading. I don’t believe a message has to be from just one soul, especially since they’ve shown me that they work really well as a cluster. Spirit can also come forward, recede, and play off each other’s energy. They channel together like old pros. In my largest venue readings, it’s amazing how organized your family’s souls have been! I also believe Spirit will help orchestrate who comes to the readings and sometimes where they sit. You can’t miss how certain types of deaths—which is how I initially validate your loved ones to you—are seated together, which makes piggybacking easier. In one section of a theater, there will be multiple women who’ve lost children, families whose loved ones had Alzheimer’s, or even friends who’ve died from similar freak accidents like a falling object. It sounds wild, because it is. And Spirit’s behind all of it. What I love most about group readings is that you get to hear so many incredible, compelling messages that you can’t help but feel touched by all of it. I also find that Spirit is a little more fun during group readings, especially during the private, smaller groups. In a room of ten to fifteen people, I can channel anywhere between twenty to forty souls in a two-hour period. But there are so many different, lively, and dynamic personalities around that souls with stronger energy can help those with less to communicate better by letting them use their energy. Sometimes I have souls that channel for an entire hour, and nobody else comes through; other times, a soul might stay for a short time, go away, and then come back and talk a mile a minute! It’s like the soul recharged its batteries. When a reading is over, I can hardly remember what I’ve said, seen, or felt for too long after, because again, they’re not my feelings, thoughts, or emotions. Unless the message is part of a really mind-blowing or emotionally gripping session, whatever information Spirit sends me isn’t something that’s stuck in my head forever. Know too that you take your dead friends and family with you when you leave a session, show, or my house. For some reason, it’s always the husbands who remind me to take all the Spirits with me, and I’m always like, “Listen, pal, they’re not my Spirits. They’re your dead relatives. They’re staying with you. I got my own problems.

studies have shown that with brisk daily walks over a period of months, certain parts of people’s brains actually get bigger.

Over the years, I have cared for loved ones with advanced Alzheimer, late stage cardiovascular and renal disease and Stage 4 cancer. But none of those experiences prepared me for being a carer for a Severe or Very Severe ME patient. The breadth, severity and unprediciability of the symptoms and dysfunction from one person ro the next and from one day to the next can be hard to comprehend and mainstream medical education doesn't help.

I pushed him because I knew that something was wrong and he turned to me and said, “I don’t like being like this.

When I got home, I told Steve about the meeting and asked him if he minded me being so vocal. His response was, “NO, I want to stay alive, too.

It's not even as if she had been diagnosed with a terminal illness. Well, Alzheimer's ultimately is terminal and she would eventually die from it. But, someday, not today. In some ways, I thought that it would have been easier to digest the diagnosis of a terminal illness. At least then we would have had an end in sight. Somewhere to go from there. Closure. Alzheimer's is like being sentenced to life in prison for a crime you didn't commit. Only you wake up each morning forgetting where you are and why you're there. So, you just sit and wait for the disease to take hold of your mind and control of your life.

I mean, it wasn't like she had died. Then, people might care. I always reminded myself that there were many people who had it far worse than me, so I had no right to complain about my problems. Besides, nobody liked a Debbie Downer.

I went through all of the five stages of grief.

When dealing with Alzheimer's, the grieving process is ongoing. It repeats itself over and over again. Just when you've come to accept a loss, you experience a new loss and the grieving process begins again. When a loved one has Alzheimer's, you lose a little bit of more of that person each day. You are constantly losing, grieving, and accepting. Some losses hit you harder than others, but you are constantly repeating the stages of grief regardless of the significance of the loss.

I don't think my friends back then even knew the extent of my sadness and depression. They didn't know how all-consuming my mom's Alzheimer's was for me. It wasn't like she was getting noticeably worse by the day. It wasn't like something bad or scary was happening to her every day. She had never been in the hospital because of her Alzheimer's. It wasn't like she was going to die tomorrow. But, I thought about her Alzheimer's all day, every single day.

Caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's creates an environment that perpetuates a constant state of guilt. I felt guilty that I didn't spend enough time with my mom.

I feel guilty for things I've done. I feel guilty for things I haven't done. I feel guilty for everything. I never feel like I'm doing enough to help out. I always feel like I could have done more.

We can become used to doing things that we could have never imagined ourselves doing before we were suddenly doing them. After a while, it becomes no big deal. We adapt ourselves and our lives to the changes around us. The thing is that we are always capable of doing more than we think we can do. It really is true that you don't know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have. It never gets any easier, but you always get stronger.

I believe that if people knew more about Alzheimer's, then they would be more likely to keep in touch with a family member, friend, or neighbor who has the disease. They wouldn't be so scared or turned off by it. They would want to help out as much as they want to help their friend who's been battling cancer for years.

How can I be both the patient, attentive caregiver and still have fun being myself? It's a balance and it's not easy.

Aside from balancing the roles of being a caregiver and being myself, it is difficult to balance my parents' needs and my own needs.

We should absolutely keep fighting to find a cure. But, I urge you not to give up on your life in doing so. Don't sit around waiting for a cure.

There is an affordable laser treatment device that can be used at home with a headset that emits near infrared light through diodes placed on the scalp and inside the nostril called Vielight. They are conducting a clinical trial with 228 participants across North America to see what it does for Alzheimer’s. If someone I love was suffering from Alzheimer’s right now, I wouldn’t want to have to wait for this trial to be over before getting the device. The risk of allowing Alzheimer’s to progress is much higher than the risk of trying it out. Devices that use light on the brain range from $200 to many thousands of dollars.