By Pam Ness
A recent New York Times article did a magnificent job of capturing the essence of what it is like to live with Alzheimer’s disease, both as a patient, and as a caregiver. The writer N.R. Kleinfeld spent 20 months following Geri Taylor, a 72-year-old woman in the early stages of Alzheimer’s, along with her caregiver husband and their adult children, in “Fraying at the Edges: Her Fight to Live With Alzheimer’s.”
Ms. Taylor is clearly a very smart and insightful woman, and because of those qualities, Mr. Kleinfeld was able to paint a touchingly beautiful and intimate picture of what the Alzheimer’s progression looks and feels like from the patient’s perspective. Ms. Taylor and her husband Jim, her primary caregiver, have devoted themselves to sharing their story, in the hopes of helping to guide others and provide a road map of insight, strategies, and hope in coping with this devastating illness.
Ms. Taylor’s ability to share the precise details of her struggles and her strengths, her acute awareness of the changes she experiences, and the positivity and hope that she is able to embrace in accepting her situation and diagnosis, is nothing short of extraordinary. Thanks to the contributions from her husband Jim, we are able to see how their relationship dynamics have changed, in ways both good and challenging, and the quiet strength and resilience that they personify together is truly breathtaking and inspiring.
This is a very intimate portrait of one family’s journey with Alzheimer’s, and great thought and energy has gone into the project. It is lengthy, so make sure to click here and bookmark the article, so that you can read it in its entirety at a comfortable pace.
The Taylors greatly benefitted from being connected with a caregiving agency in their community, similar to Eldercare Services. Jim attended caregiver workshops, while Geri became connected with a Memory Works group for Alzheimer’s and dementia patients. The expert staff at the agency provided invaluable support and resources for the Taylors in their daily life while living with Alzheimer’s, and helped to meet the needs that arose throughout the different stages of illness.
We hope that you will connect with us at Eldercare so that we can similarly work together to support you and your loved one with all of the resources we offer.