Maria Shriver

Dwayne J. Clark

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Blog Posts

• February 21, 2012

  Alzheimer's and Caregiving

  

  Five Lessons to Ease the Alzheimer’s Journey

  Follow @dwayneclark

  When my sister Edweena first began telling me stories about my mother’s increasing forgetfulness, odd behaviors, and erratic emotions, I should have recognized that something was wrong and rallied my family with a plan of assessment, action and acceptance.

  After all, as the founder and CEO of a progressive community of assisted living facilities, I see spouses, siblings, sons, and daughters every day grappling with the ways in which dementia is affecting and changing their loved ones.

  It turned out, though, that neither my credentials nor my experience served as an inoculation against denial in the years before my mother was finally, officially diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. Even when my sister whispered to me one night that our mother was having imaginary conversations with her long-dead sister and had wandered out into the middle of the street in her nightgown, I found ways to rationalize it.