Travels in Place: A Journey Into Memory Loss

By Christiane W. Griffin-wehr

Book Overview

Travels in Place is the tender memoir of a daughter's reflections as she loses her beloved mother to dementia. The work promotes the radical notion that some things in life are not ours to fix-which does not mean that we either run from them or stand helpless amid decline and suffering. Faced with the often heartbreaking, sometimes humorous situations of patients suffering severe memory loss and dementia, the author urges us to leave fruitless efforts to go farther and do more and instead to trust ourselves to be more.Through her story, the author leads us to understand that as caregivers to patients with Alzheimer's-like diseases, we may not be able to cure the symptoms, restore past or future, or even always make the present bearable. But we can learn to go deeper into ourselves, explore the evolving relationship more thoroughly where we are, and openly embrace its moments with honesty and love. Thus will the reader find the power to transform even these difficult travels into a life-giving journey.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1934759104
• ISBN13: 9781934759103
• Release Date: September 2008
• Publisher: Robert Reed Publishers
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.77 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

The Complexity Faced When Disease Threatens Dignity

"Travels in Place" is a memoir written by Christiane W. Griffin-Wehr. It is a memoir that describer the journey she traveled as her mother begins a descent into memory loss and dementia. Christiane shares random glimpses of her past with stories of an incident, a time or place in her childhood in Germany. She may then segue into a more recent experience as she relates training for a marathon on the Mesa trails in Boulder or reflections on her son Curtis, his studies, his career, and his concerns as she builds these into the stages of delicate balance of denial and reality ever present in the unpredictable journey of dementia. The snapshots from family albums throughout the narrative add a dimension to Chrisiane's writing and make the reader feel they are a part of her journey. I understood when she described her mother's increase in loneliness and the stage of withdrawing into the isolation of her own world. Christiana tells of the difficulty she had with accepting the three indelible words which became a permanent part of her mother's medical records, "severe memory loss." She describes her mother's fading memory as the "deepening canyon of her decline." She relates the sacrifice made by family members to help with care, of vacations gone awry, of meals, meds, and the difficulty she had in dealing with the frightening imaginations of her mother's disturbed mind. She describes the ever changing subtleties of recognition, reliance, and reality. She expresses the sense of loss as she watched her mother withdraw from the world around her into a "gray space" of mental deterioration. Christiana's writing is touching, personal, and poignant. She has crafted beautiful similes using the seasons of the year as parallels to the seasons of life. She tells of "hope born of possibility" when she discovered the motto of the Mountain View home is: "Alive in All Seasons of Life." I found the chapter discussion questions titled, "Nourishment for Your Journey" especially helpful, as I have began recording journal entries of lessons I am learning on my own journey as primary caregiver of a loved one. This is an important book for Caregivers, family members, and health professionals caring for the elderly. Sensitive, honest, and relevant.