Christy Heron
Soulcrusher: The story of a family living through, and with, Alzheimer's Disease.
I moved to Florida to help my parents and help my mom take care of her husband-my stepfather who has been basically my dad for the last 32 years. The story of how he descended into this disease and everything after is so unbelievable and sad, it is a story that has to be told.
Not, ‘ok this is how you deal with this’, and ‘this is how your day will go.’
I’m going to take the reader into the depths of this disease (late stage Alzheimer’s, dementia) and what really goes on in the homes, cars, assisted living facilities, doctors’ offices, etc. None of it is something anyone should have to endure, most importantly the person who is suffering from it.
Not only are you experiencing absolutely no peace, volatility, violence, poop, endless planning and asshole doctors on a regular basis, but you are dealing with your family as well. Not the family you are helping to care for (well, that too and those issues will be addressed in the book), but the ‘rest of the’ family: other siblings.
This is an entire different level of hell. Nothing makes you grow up faster when you have to talk about powers of attorney, who gets the house, money, who gets to stay, go, pull the plug, and so on. Nothing makes you realize faster who is manipulative, who may just want to ruin you and who will make your life an even bigger living hell when ill parent finally dies.
When money is involved, and death… people, family, become wolves. I pray I don’t become a wolf. I pray no one around me does. But it’s a fact I deal with and won’t ignore. I plan for that day. Because most likely it will happen. But to have to deal with the agony of your loved one suffering and withering away, you have all of these other responsibilities.
I wouldn’t wish this disease or the effects on everyone around them, on the devil himself. You spend years at deaths door. You will know forever what it will look like. That isn’t something I want to know in my early 30s. I think Robert Redford said once, ‘life is inherently sad’…I can’t remember what he said after that. Maybe ‘enjoy it when you can’ it’s so true.
Xanax. Xanax is the key. And Ketel One of course.
I moved to Florida to help my parents and help my mom take care of her husband-my stepfather who has been basically my dad for the last 32 years. The story of how he descended into this disease and everything after is so unbelievable and sad, it is a story that has to be told.
Not, ‘ok this is how you deal with this’, and ‘this is how your day will go.’
I’m going to take the reader into the depths of this disease (late stage Alzheimer’s, dementia) and what really goes on in the homes, cars, assisted living facilities, doctors’ offices, etc. None of it is something anyone should have to endure, most importantly the person who is suffering from it.
Not only are you experiencing absolutely no peace, volatility, violence, poop, endless planning and asshole doctors on a regular basis, but you are dealing with your family as well. Not the family you are helping to care for (well, that too and those issues will be addressed in the book), but the ‘rest of the’ family: other siblings.
This is an entire different level of hell. Nothing makes you grow up faster when you have to talk about powers of attorney, who gets the house, money, who gets to stay, go, pull the plug, and so on. Nothing makes you realize faster who is manipulative, who may just want to ruin you and who will make your life an even bigger living hell when ill parent finally dies.
When money is involved, and death… people, family, become wolves. I pray I don’t become a wolf. I pray no one around me does. But it’s a fact I deal with and won’t ignore. I plan for that day. Because most likely it will happen. But to have to deal with the agony of your loved one suffering and withering away, you have all of these other responsibilities.
I wouldn’t wish this disease or the effects on everyone around them, on the devil himself. You spend years at deaths door. You will know forever what it will look like. That isn’t something I want to know in my early 30s. I think Robert Redford said once, ‘life is inherently sad’…I can’t remember what he said after that. Maybe ‘enjoy it when you can’ it’s so true.
Xanax. Xanax is the key. And Ketel One of course.
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