Kissing the Knick-Knacks Goodbye

June 08, 2018

I hated them, you know, those knick-knacks. Knick-knacks, tchotchkes, baubles or whatever you want to call the ornamental trinkets my mother loved so much. She used to line her window sills with little colored vases and pitchers. And since the sun set on that side of our house, the angled light from the setting sun would shine through each one and cast colored sun beams into the room. To keep them bright and dustless, my mother would often gently bathe each treasure in Ajax water and
Don't Let a Paper Floor Get to You

May 08, 2018

The thing with early onset Alzheimer’s is that it sets in early on. Early, when the person might still be raising children, or at the pinnacle of a career, or when they are getting themselves set up for their older years so they can travel and what not. That kind of early. It’s so early, that it seems impossible to happen. Like when a flower bud sadly dies in a vase before it opens. The whole reason the flower grew was to open, but because of being cut too soon, it withers and dies before
TANGLES AND WEBS AND PLAQUE, OH MY!

April 08, 2018

There are just so many details to dwell on when your loved one is sick but none of those things should be your fears. After a diagnosis, the first instinct might be to educate yourself. It’s logical that you want more information. You can use that information to care for them, or anticipate what may be coming in the future. The problem with reading up on the disease is sometimes it crosses the line of obsessing. That factoid, my friends, is from experience. In the beginning, I read and
I WANT TO BE A RAINDROP

March 08, 2018

I could identify my mother blindfolded. I knew her laugh, her yell, and her sneeze. I knew her skin scent mixed with Ivory soap or her favorite perfume she would buy from an Avon saleslady that came to our door for years. I could identify my mother by the feel of her silky black hair as I twirled my ten-year-old fingers through it. I knew her and she knew me, that is, until she no longer knew me. It’s a monumental moment in the progression of Alzheimers disease when your loved one

Renée lives in the northwest hills of Connecticut with her husband and dogs. Her website and book are the culmination of twenty-five years of experience dealing with early-onset Alzheimer's, a disease that has plagued three generations in her family. Her goal is to help other families facing the challenges of caregiving with humor and dignity.

THE CAREGIVER'S GUIDE TO THE UNIVERSE

LITTLE BIT ABOUT ME

Kissing the Knick-Knacks Goodbye

Don't Let a Paper Floor Get to You

TANGLES AND WEBS AND PLAQUE, OH MY!

I WANT TO BE A RAINDROP

PURCHASE THE BOOK

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