 MEMOIR CHALLENGES ALZHEIMER'S STEREOTYPE OF LOSS
"FIERCE BLESSING: A Journey Into Alzheimer's, Compassion, and the Joy of Being"
by Terry and Wayne Baltz
What the books and experts and many caregivers told the Baltzes repeatedly - that this is a horrible disease which only gets worse each day - was true. But it proved to be only part of the truth, overlooking entirely the love and joy and deepening of relationship that they and Helen experienced, not only in spite of but often as a direct result of the illness.
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"What a gift this book is. I can't stop thinking about it. It's profoundly spiritual, and profoundly human."
Kathy Waeckerle, RN
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Today, five and a half million people in the United States are living with diagnosed Alzheimer’s Disease. Easily 35 million more are in close relationship with them, by marriage or blood, as friends, as neighbors, as medical and human service professionals. Many are direct caregivers. Perhaps you are one of these. Or were. Or see that you soon will be.
"As a society, we have this cultural belief that if one's brain does not function well, one is lost, no longer truly human. This experience taught us otherwise. Slowly, we learned that a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s Disease does not end a life, nor need it be the end of a relationship. Alzheimer’s, we found, is pretty much like anything else life brings one’s way. It is change, and harbors within it the opportunity to develop new, even deeper connections than before.”
Most individuals drawn to our website and book are likely struggling with feelings of isolation and being overwhelmed by the day to day challenges of caregiving of someone with this disease (or others like it: other dementias, brain injury, any chronic, progressive, and ultimately fatal disease). For many, the experience may be something akin to that of a non-swimmer being thrown unexpectedly into deep water: fear and panic, ineffectual flailing, hopelessness, anger. They are trying to get their bearings, to get some ideas, to connect with someone or something --- a lifeline.
Fierce Blessing is not a “nuts-and-bolts” book, nor a how-to manual detailing the medical, financial, or legal aspects of dementia and caretaking. It is instead a moving, captivating story of individual experience artfully distilled into insights and lessons of universal value.
FIERCE BLESSING provides a sense of connection and solidarity with the authors and salves the feelings of isolation, guilt, failure, and hopelessness that many caregivers feel.
- Easy to read, lively, diary format
- Captivating, present-tense storytelling
- Integrity and utter honesty
- Hope and upliftment
Alzheimer's caregivers will get many benefits from reading Fierce Blessing:
- Validation of their own experience
- Permission to forgive their own mistakes and shortcomings
- Insight; new perspective
- Peace and inspiration
Click Here To Order Today
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"I'm half way through my copy of Fierce Blessing and can't put it down. It's mesmerizing -- sweet, frustrating, funny, infuriating, loving."
Alison Cook, reader
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"Fierce Blessing is a gift from the heart. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, but most of all you’ll come away with a greater appreciation of life and the love that binds us."
Brian Luke Seaward, PhD
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You order, we ship it to you - it's that simple!
Single copy is $15.95. Progressive discounts for multiple copies in a single purchase. Shipping is a flat charge of $5.00 for any number of books in a single order delivered within the U.S.
Books will be autographed by the authors without charge (case and multi-case quantities excepted)
"We have attempted to write the book we wish had been available to us when we started out on this journey,” co-author Wayne Baltz says. “Our goal has been two-fold: To share meaningful information with others in a similar situation by giving voice not only to ourselves and our experience, but to Terry’s mother, and to others with dementia, as well. Our second purpose, of equal importance, has been to portray a fuller, more faceted picture of that time when our three lives were so dramatically affected by this disease. What we discovered was something not in keeping with the commonly held and heard notions of Alzheimer’s as a stealer of memory and intellect, of relationship and self-identity and, ultimately, of personhood itself. Our experience was, to be sure, almost always profoundly difficult, and by turns saddening, frightening, and infuriating. But it proved also to be enlivening and enriching, at times even hilarious. Ours was a broader, more complex, and far more richly rewarding experience than we had anticipated, or been led to believe awaited us."
Thank you,
Terry and Wayne Baltz
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"A rich, loving, sage, and even humorous look at caring for and saying goodbye to those we love. There's great wisdom here about what really matters"
Susan Skog, author |
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