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Hope is Our Story
In Seeking Clarity in the Labyrinth: A Daughter’s Journey Through Alzheimer’s, you share your family’s experiences following your mother’s Alzheimer’s diagnosis, how you navigated her care, and the grief of losing her to this disease. Why was this an important book for you to share?
When it was clear we were well into our journey with Alzheimer’s, and my Uncle and Aunt passed (complications with Parkinson’s & Alzheimer’s) I started writing to heal myself. As I shared it with my Dad, it became clear our story may be able to help others. The journey of losing a loved one includes so many emotions–fear, anger, pain, sadness, love, grief. My hope is our story can help others in their journey.
I appreciated the candid nature with which you told your family’s story. What was the hardest thing for you to write about?
Much of the story was written in relatively ‘real-time.’ As I read it now, I am not sure if I would have been able to capture some of the raw, intense quality of my writing. Her passing ended up being this beautiful gift for both myself and my dad. If I went back and wrote it now, I do not know if it would have translated. This, however, was not the hardest part–those sections in the middle, when I was angry with her and the situation…those parts were hard to write about.
What is a common misconception you feel people have about caring for a family member suffering from Alzheimer’s?
Too often we believe we have ‘lost’ our loved ones. Yes, in many ways they are lost or ‘gone’ but, truly, we have just lost a version of them. Their essence is still there. They may not talk or walk, and often our loved ones may be angry or even nasty, but they are still human. They are still our people. If we are able to remember that, remember them in their entirety, we can help care for them more easily. If we can meet our loved ones where they are, we are truly seeing them.
What is one thing you hope your readers take away from your experience?
I hope my readers laugh, cry and embrace the sweet and fragile joy of life, in its raw, sometimes nasty and tragic ways. Life is beautiful, in all the ways we are able to see it.
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Do you need help navigating despair and frustration and seeking a different path of acceptance?
This book is not for everyone. It is brutally honest. Glossing over the despair of Alzheimer’s Disease serves no one. This book is for those willing to explore the stages of Alzheimer’s and accept the uphill journey of navigating the loss of a loved one with dementia.
Not only that, but this book also teaches you how to:
Navigate your own grief and loss
See and accept your loved ones on their journey
Find and celebrate the simple gifts life has to offer
Understand the Labyrinth as a healing tool
Learn about Palliative Care, Hospice Care, and Memory Care Facilities
Witness one family’s tragic and hopeful acceptance of loss and love
One daughter’s journey sets the scene for a raw 13-year transformation to acceptance. The Labyrinth serves as a tool of healing. This book helps explore ways to see and honor your loved one even when you feel lost on the path.
Seeking Clarity in the Labyrinth, A Daughter’s Journey Through Alzheimer’s is thoughtful, honest, uplifting, and tender. You will be transformed.
For a limited time, download this remarkable book at a temporary introductory price!
Seeking Clarity in the Labyrinth: A Daughter’s Journey Through Alzheimer’s
Losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s is a journey without a roadmap. It can be mercifully brief or agonizingly prolonged, with each family’s path uniquely different yet heartbreakingly similar. In her deeply personal and cathartic book, Jessica Stokes delves into her family’s experience with this disease, often termed “the longest goodbye,” as she witnessed her mother’s cognitive decline. The narrative highlights how Alzheimer’s impacts not only the diagnosed individual but also the entire family, necessitating extensive care and adjustments. This story will resonate with many.
Seeking Clarity in the Labyrinth: A Daughter’s Journey Through Alzheimer’s is a poignant memoir by Jessica Stokes that serves as both a personal account and a therapeutic exploration. Beyond detailing her family’s 13-year journey with her mother’s Alzheimer’s, the book delves into themes of grief, balance, acceptance, change, and, above all, love. Stokes recounts the gradual loss of her mother, sharing how she learned to embrace the evolving versions of her. While not always consistent in this endeavor, she navigated the situation with resilience, steering through unwanted yet unavoidable challenges.
The narrative, though mostly linear, mirrors the workings of memory, where a small detail can spark an entirely new recollection. The book also carries a spiritual undertone, exploring concepts of life, death, and the possibility of an afterlife. The mindful and intentional journey of the labyrinth—both as a concept and through specific examples worldwide—was a constant presence for Stokes and her family, eventually becoming a metaphor for their experience. The labyrinth in her parents’ backyard, lovingly constructed by family members, symbolizes a sanctuary, providing peace within a convoluted path. Stokes revisits this imagery throughout her book, using it to illustrate the emotions accompanying the disease’s progression.
This book will be painfully familiar to those who have lost or are in the process of losing a loved one to Alzheimer’s. It offers comfort in a shared experience. Despite its deeply personal nature, Stokes’ story resonates universally. Even readers without direct experience with Alzheimer’s may relate to the gradual loss of a parent. Stokes writes with clarity and frankness, delivering a story that is heartfelt and heartbreaking.
Pages: 136 | ISBN : 978-1955683418
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