Would they be proud 2?

Its kind of funny how my Dad's life and mine has become intertwined. I can tell Dad now that I've written a book and he will look briefly interested and probably say something like, "Oh yeah? That's nice."-provided he feels like saying anything at all. But it won't have the impact on him that it would have, and that's a little sad. What's also terribly sad and heartbreaking is the number of people in the same situation.

Having just had the book debut, I've been looking through Amazon's choices for books on dementia and LewyBody and caregiving and all that. What started to shock me was the sheer number of books written by ordinary people about their loved ones with dementia. Obviously, I'm not the only one who felt she had a story to share. Books written by adult children of ill parents, books written by spouses, book written by those stricken by dementia themselves! It's a little shocking to tell the truth, and that's before you even consider the number of blogs out there, written by people just trying to get through the day, in the grip of this terrible disease, dementia.

And we're all just out there in the great silence, spinning our stories, sending little flares up about how our lives are affected by this thing. To read how some people are dealing day to day is inspiring and awful. This disease, almost more than any other, affects families and loved ones almost as much as the afflicted. The stories are never exactly the same, but they are close enough to give comfort. For a while, my life wasn't as affected Dad's life as it was a few years ago when the events of the book took place, although that's beginning to change again and things are heating back up. I guess we all have no choice but to keep going day to day, keep writing our blogs and our books and hoping that the hardships we've experienced aren't for nothing - that maybe by telling them, someone else will be helped.