Who Cares (ePub)

Anna Strosser's memoir WHO CARES is an optimistic chronicle proving that dementia can be lovingly accommodated at home while families can be nurtured and strengthened through the process. WHO CARES offers a timely personal account by an eighty-eight year old wife and caregiver, whose unique insights chronicle the impact dementia has on her husband Ken and herself. The story describes the journey of an elderly couple who, after fifty-five years of marriage, walk together out of their home in Pittsburgh and move in with their daughter and son-in-law in urban Philadelphia, to gain help and support in caring for Ken at home. WHO CARES describes every-day points of crisis in caregiving that many people will relate to, and shares helpful attitudes and caregiver interventions that worked for these people. WHO CARES shares stories from the home-front that can help caregivers learn to cope and find hope in common-sense ways of managing that are successful and rewarding to everyone involved.

Author Anna Strosser's skill in coping with mental illness began long before her husband became ill. In this story we learn that her experience of being a caregiver for her husband is the culmination of many aspects of her life and professional training: a psychiatric nurse, a trained art therapist, a mother of four children, a poet and painter. Her point of view is not sentimental nor nostalgic, but rather a tough, clear eyed inquiry into the shifting circumstances and emotional pain she experiences as an elderly caregiver, wife and mother.