Remembering the music, forgetting the words

the long version

In this unsentimental memoir of watching her mother fade away, of dealing with her bills, her housework, her increasing demands and dementia, Whouley brings us right into the laugh-or-you'll-cry experiences of meeting the challenge of Alzheimer's. As her mother falls into forgetting, Kate remembers for her. In her mother, we meet a strong-minded, accidental feminist with a weakness for unreliable men. We meet a daughter who learned early to fend for herself. We encounter their shared passions: books, words, and music. When the books are forgotten and the words begin to fade, it is the music that matters most to Kate's mother. Holding hands after a concert, a flute case slung over Kate's shoulder, and a shared joke between them, their relationship is healed--even in the face of a dreaded, and deadly, diagnosis.