What do you do if the person you love and have loved for decades becomes terminally ill? She will gradually lose her ability to do things she has always done well. Her speaking ability will decline until she can no longer utter a sound. She will increasingly become more childlike until she is entirely dependent on you. It will seem like she is no longer the person you once knew intimately well. Yet, it is still her. Finally, she will die. You are still alive. Now you face a new life without her.
What will that do to you, your emotions, how you live and view life? What happens to your thoughts about death and life after death? If you are a person of faith, how does this affect your understanding of and relationship with Him?
Is there meaning or purpose in your and her situation? How do you relate to her as she is less responsive to you? What is it to love her? To summarize, "What does it mean to be married to someone with dementia?"
Elton Nelson personally grapples with all these questions and more in this book. He was married to his wife, Jan, for forty years. During the last ten years, the symptoms of dementia continually increased, affecting every aspect of her being. He shares many stories of their life and describes this decade as the most challenging of his life and the most precious. He would not wish what happened to Jan and him on anyone, yet he is thankful for this decade.
His wife was diagnosed with dementia, a brain injuring debilitating disease where death is the only cure.
