When I was in California in June this year, I had the pleasure of meeting Ruth Stevens, author of the book and stage play, Stage Seven (which refers to the seventh stage of Alzheimer’s), a heartwarming novel about the complexities and relationship challenges of caring for a person with Alzheimer’s.
Here is my review of her book:
‘Stage Seven reveals the unpredictable course of Alzheimer’s disease and its many ripple effects with warmth, humour and tremendous insight. Two patients, two caregivers and two families come together to create a story that elicits the full spectrum of human emotions. Ruth Stevens has an extraordinary capacity to see the world from multiple perspectives. Through the eyes of her engaging characters, we learn to love life’s ambiguities. I didn’t want the story to end.’
Ruth is also an editor with AlzAuthors — a volunteer-run, not-for-profit organisation on a mission to lift the silence and stigma of Alzheimer’s and other dementias. They do so by providing resources to light the path for those on a dementia journey. AlzAuthors connects caregivers with the best books, blogs and podcasts about dementia and topics related to caregiving.
The team at AlzAuthors has curated hundreds of powerful and profound stories, spanning all dementia types and stages through a variety of genres. You can read these stories on their blog, or follow the podcast to hear the author tell their story in more detail. AlzAuthors offer daily resources on social media and they regularly feature new authors on their site.
And one of those new authors is me!
I am humbled to join the 350+ authors in the AlzAuthors community with my first book, In Search of My Father — Dementia is no match for a daughter’s determination. To listen to my conversation with podcast hosts, Marianne Sciucco and Christy Byrne Yates, click here.
Marianne is a registered nurse, dementia daughter and author of the novel Blue Hydrangeas, an Alzheimer’s love story. Christy is a Licensed Educational Psychologist (LEP), retired school psychologist, speaker and coach/consultant, and author of Building a Legacy of Love: Thriving in the Sandwich Generation.
Photo: Fellow author, Ruth Stevens and me at a cafe in Torrance, California.
Please share this Health-e-Byte to anyone who is on a dementia journey — be they the person with dementia, their caregiver, a family member or a friend.
