VOICES of ALZHEIMER'S
Courage, Humor, Hope, and Love
in the Face of Dementia
by BETSY PETERSON

About the Book

Voices of Alzheimer's is a compassionate collection of comments and encouragement from people who have faced the struggle of Alzheimer's--including many who have been diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, or a similar illness like Pick's Disease, or a Lewy body, frontotemporal, or vascular dementia.

These short comments from many voices convey the variety of stories and of moods.  Beginning with the first section, "Something's Wrong'", they tell us of many facets of the illness, including "The Patient's Changing World", "Muddling through the Middle Stage", "Dark Parts", "Alzheimer's as a Teacher", "Gifts", and eventually, "Final Days" and "Afterward".

Peterson draws from many sources--conversations with friends, Alzheimer's conferences, books, articles, on-line chat rooms and journals.  She also tells us "The Peterson Story", in an opening essay and anecdotes--nearly fourteen years from her husband's diagnosis until his death.  The book includes an unusually rich section on resources and issues, as well as a foreword and "Habilitation Principles" by Joanne Koenig Coste, author of Learning to Speak Alzheimer's.

This little book--only six inches square and easy to slip into a pocket-- is packed with feeling, honesty, and wisdom.

Betsy Peterson and her husband "Pete:"

Peterson began the book after her husband died in the spring of 2001, during a year in the Scholars Program at the Women's Studies Research Center at Brandeis University.  She has been a teacher, an assistant dean of Yale College during its first years of undergraduate coeducation, and a lawyer for a publishing company (not the one that publishes her book!)  She has three children and six grandchildren and lives in Boston.