Only With the Heart

the long version

"From the time she was a little girl, shuttled from one foster home to another, Claudia had longed for a family of her own. So when she marries Sam, her dream seems to have come true: not only has she found a devoted husband, but at last she has a loving mother, Eleanor, Sam's mother.". "But the portrait of her perfect family begins to fracture and split as Eleanor - and everyone around her - descends into the nightmare of Alzheimer's. As agonizing year follows agonizing year, Claudia bears the brunt of Eleanor's increasing dementia: her violent eruptions, speechlessness, incontinence, even suicide attempts. Soon the money disappears, Claudia loses her business, and her marriage to Sam is on the verge of collapse. Desperate, driven to the edge by the very ties of love and commitment that she craved all her life, and helpless in the face of Eleanor's condition, Claudia reaches the breaking point. And still she loves the mother she had waited her whole life to find. But when Eleanor is discovered dead with a collection of empty pill bottles beside her bed, the unthinkable seems possible, and Claudia is charged with murder."--BOOK JACKET.