The Women's Alzheimers Movement

THE FAVORITE DAUGHTER centers around a family that must either come together or fall apart (or both) over an Alzheimer’s diagnosis. Not often does an author’s past and a story’s future come together as it does in this book.

My past life (not that kind) was as a pediatric nurse, and my graduate thesis centered on brain injuries. I have long been fascinated by the role memory plays in our lives and as a definition of self.

💜 When @teresamumu introduced me to the work of WAM (Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement) with @mariashriver Maria Shriver, I knew I had found a kindred spirit in facing these questions head-on with action. Real action and research.

I’ll be talking so much more about this – but for now – check them out. Check out their brain healthy tips and subscribe to their newsletter. Information is coming in at a rapid pace and they are keeping up! @womensalzmovement

Read More and How to Join the Movement on my BLOG.

Patti Partners with

Women's Alzheimer's Movement

Bestselling Author, Patti Callahan Henry

Reflects on "the Poignancy of Memory"

Life is made up of thousands of memories, if not millions. The smell of a favorite childhood landscape. The touch of a loved one’s hand. The sound of a lover’s whisper. The sight of a baby’s smile. The ache of loss and heartbreak.

Do such memories define us?

They often seem to, and yet— what is a memory?

Amorphous connections inside the brain? Electrochemical signals? Synapses connecting with the patterns of things that have happened to us? These are – of course – questions that don’t have a fully satisfactory answer.

What we do know is that when someone we love begins to lose their memories, it hurts. Though they might sit there in a familiar chair, in a familiar house, with their body alive and well, their life seems to be fading away. We feel confused and disconnected. We feel as if we don’t know them or as if they don’t know us. It’s painful.

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Dr. Pauline Boss has a term for the pain we feel in this: ambiguous loss. She writes, “Human relationships are ruptured indefinitely by ambiguous loss.” Rupture. That’s a powerful word. And yet, when someone we love suffers from Alzheimer’s, that loved one is simultaneously present and absent. These dueling facts pull us in opposite directions. Have we lost them or not? Is it fair to mourn someone who is still alive? The questions go on and on.

When the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer’s take over a mind they destroy the very connections that we’ve spent a lifetime making. It is the cruelest fate. How do we explain such a thing? John O’Donohue – the Irish poet and philosopher – spoke of such questions as lanterns, illuminating a path forward. I believe that. And I believe that the questions we ask about memory and memory-loss are lantern lights, guiding our path toward healing, understanding, prevention, and a possible cure.

When I use the lantern of question, I often discover a story. Story helps make sense of the senseless, and can provide meaning in tragedy. Stories are our family legends, our beliefs, our myths. We share such stories in community and read them privately. Either way, the unique power of story can both help and heal as we journey through the maze of Alzheimer’s and memory-loss.

Medicine is predicated on questions and theory. Before I was a novelist, I was a nurse with a master’s degree in pediatrics. Folks tell me those careers seem incongruent, but it turns out both are about family, stories, and the inner secrets of our lives. My thesis and my work focused on head injuries. It was there that my fascination, awe, and also a healthy fear about the fragility of memories, began.

It was then that I began to see the power of story to guide us, to allow us to find answers, to make meaning, to make sense, and to open our eyes to something greater guiding us in the direction of truth. Sometimes those stories are “real” and sometimes (as in my case) they are fictional – a resting place to ask the larger questions in a context where the answers can unfold without the constraints of familiarity.

Memories come and go; they morph and change; they appear and disappear without warning. And when I saw families suffering when a child with a brain injury seemed no longer theirs, I began to ask questions that I’m still asking today. But a lack of sufficient answers doesn’t mean we stop asking. As Rumi wrote, we can live into the questions.

My latest novel– The Favorite Daughter explores a family that must decide whether it will come together or come undone during an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

This story was my attempt to make some sense of what seems senseless – the disintegration of personhood through memory loss. My characters try to gather their loved one’s memories in a Memory Book with stories, working their way through a life full of stories that they are slowly losing. This is what we do – try to grab onto what is disappearing right before our very eyes. Can we? Does this help at all?

Well, if this isn’t the answer, then what is?

We must do the scientific research for prevention and cure and we must also tell our stories. These are not mutually exclusive endeavors. As we struggle to persevere in the midst of ambiguous loss, we must immerse ourselves in some concoction of truth, stories, and science. I believe with my whole heart that stories will be a source of help and healing in the battle against this cruel disease that is taking our loved ones from us.

Patti Callahan Henry is a New York Times bestselling author. Her most recent novel, “The Favorite Daughter,” invites readers to meditate on the unequivocal power of our memories and the myriad of ways they can influence each or our chosen paths in life.

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June is Alzheimer's and Brain Health Awareness Month

Instagram Book Tour News
from Patti—

As I hit the road for the month of June I will be talking so much more about this and the power of story in our memories. Go follow Maria Shriver and @womensalzmovement and all the amazing things they are doing.

#thefavoritedaughter @mariashriver

The Women's Alzheimers Movement

My latest novel– The Favorite Daughter explores a family that must decide whether it will come together or come undone during an Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

Well, if this isn’t the answer, then what is?

Read More and share Blog Post. (June 3, 2019)

Education

Alzheimer’s is one of the largest social, medical, and economic crises in our nation’s history. No family, government agency or business will be immune from its devastation. We want to wipe it out before it wipes us out. Commit to staying informed about what Alzheimer’s is, what it is not, and what you can do now to keep your brain healthy.

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LEARN MORE AND JOIN THE MOVEMENT

Know the Numbers

An estimated 5.8 million Americans today live with Alzheimer’s, a disease that robs memories before taking lives.
Alzheimer’s begins to develop in the brain 20-30 years before diagnosis.
2/3 of those diagnosed are women—and no one knows why.
2/3 of Alzheimer’s caregivers are also women, many of who will have to take time off or resign from their jobs.
A woman in her 60s is twice as likely to develop Alzheimer’s over the course of her lifetime than breast cancer
After 60, a woman has a 1 in 5 chance of developing Alzheimer’s.
By 2050, 14 million brains in the U.S. will be living with Alzheimer’s, and millions more family members and friends will suffer alongside those diagnosed.

Too few people know these facts until Alzheimer’s strikes. The time to know them is now.