Alzheimer’s Caregiver—a Daughter’s Story

About the Book

Marian Tally Simmons Brown served as her mother’s caretaker for ten years as she suffered through Alzheimer’s disease. In Alzheimer’s Caregiver—a Daughter’s Story, Brown offers a true-to-life account of the family’s struggle to accept an Alzheimer's diagnosis for their wife, mother, and grandmother, and it tells of their determination to keep her in the family home for all her natural days. During this time, Brown undergoes a monumental spiritual and psychological metamorphosis. While her mother’s change is decline of all bodily systems, hers is development of skills to help her function more effectively in her new role and ultimately move closer to fulfilling her ordained life plan. Help comes through CNAs, sitters, even strangers who unexpectedly show up in parking lots and on her job with an encouraging word and in restaurants offering extra pairs of hands to help with her parents. In this memoir, Brown tells how her caregiving role taught her many lessons. Toward the end of her tenth year, she reasoned the greatest accomplishment of motherhood is being in the midst of the family circle; it was from there her mother continued to teach her despite the loss of parts of herself.

About the Author

Marian Tally Simmons Brown is a native of Fayetteville, North Carolina. She graduated from Bennett College in Greensboro, North Carolina, and Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana. For twenty years, she was a professor of fine arts at Florida State College at Jacksonville. In 1992, she made the conscious decision to return to her family home and become a caregiver for both of her parents. This role led to two publications: Grandma Has Alzheimer’s but It’s OK and Alzheimer’s Caregiver—a Daughter’s Story. Dr. Brown continues living in her family home, accompanied by her daughter and two fur babies: Trooper, a Pekingese, and Riply, a rescued Labrador mix.