Catch a Falling Star: Living With Alzheimer's

By Betty Baker Spohr

Catch a Falling Star will deepen, for both patient and caregiver, understanding of day-to-day living with Alzheimer's disease. Based on Betty Baker Spohr's personal journals, written as she cared for... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 096413571X
• ISBN13: 9780964135710
• Release Date: September 1995
• Publisher: Storm Peak Pr
• Length: 215 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.5" x 0.8" x 5.5"

Customer Reviews

Unblinking look at the disease's impact on victim & family

Betty Spohr's frank first-hand observations about a devasting disease help those who follow her solid path as a care giver to her husband.. Her overriding love for her husband powers her to use her considerable creative resources to shepherd him (and herself) as the effects of the disease accellerate. If readers dread plunging into a book about one of the most feared downsides of the increased life span phenomenon, this book has a surprisingly light-handed touch.

Invaluable!

Originally published as "To Hold a Falling Star", I bought a hardcover edition of this book years ago out of sheer curiosity. While I was browsing through the bookstore, this was a featured selection & I flipped through. What interested me the most, at the time, was the format of Betty's book. It is truly a diary, short & sweet, with a drawing accompanying each entry. Not only is it a touching story, but it is also very educational. It explains the tasks of a caretaker in a way that anyone can understand. At the end of each chapter, there is a list of things to remember---a mix of legal, personal, & spiritual things.Ironically, shortly after I purchased the book, my grandmother suffered another of many strokes. This one caused her to act as though she had Alzheimer's. Doctors labelled it "dementia" & theorized that it was caused by a dislodged particle of plaque that travelled to her brain.Although Granny wasn't as progressed as an AD patient, she relied on my parents to care for her from then on & she never recovered. Just like a person with AD, she would be acute in some areas (beating everyone at dominoes) while being completely "not there" in others (not bathing, not eating yet perking up whenever ice cream was around.)Betty's book helped to serve as a warning of things my parents could expect & ultimately had to deal with at one time or another.