© 2024 Milwaukee Public Media is a service of UW-Milwaukee's College of Letters & Science
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

A Caregiver's Reflection On Alzheimer's

miad.edu

The death of Car Talk’s Tom Magliozzi this week of complications from Alzheimer’s has many of us thinking about our parents, our grandparents, even ourselves. 

The fear of losing one’s mind is profound. It’s tragic for the person with the disease, but it’s also deeply disturbing for the family members who have to provide care while watching the loved one they knew fade away.

Like many middle-aged people, Wisconsin writer Judith Harway found herself as her mother’s caretaker as she suffered and eventually succumbed to the disease. 

Her new memoir, Sundown, describes that period of her life as she tried to honor her parents while maintaining her own life – which included a husband, children and a full-time job.

Harway spoke with Lake Effect's Bonnie North about the many lessons and trials she faced while taking care of her mother, and how she believed writing about her experience could help countless others in similar situations.

"No story every exists in a vacuum, and that what had happened with my mother and the experiences that my family had been through really mirrored the experiences of many other families," she said. "We live in a country where there's close to six million people with Alzheimer's right now."

While going through the caretaking process and writing about it was difficult at times, Harway found that it helped her accept her mother's illness as "a certain sort of reconciliation and forgiveness [sneaked] in."

"And I found the harder it became to be in that caregiving role, the more frequently I heard myself saying to my parents 'I love you' because I wanted that to be the mantra for both of us," she said.

Judith Harway is a Professor of Writing at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and author of the new memoir, Sundown: A Daughter’s Memoir of Alzheimer’s Care.  She’ll read from the book this Sunday afternoon at 3 at MIAD’s Brooks Stevens Gallery.

Bonnie North
Bonnie joined WUWM in March 2006 as the Arts Producer of the locally produced weekday magazine program Lake Effect.
Audrey is a WUWM host and producer for Lake Effect.