Janet Aird

Now I Remember I Love You Janet Aird

More than anything, this is a love story. But it's also the story of the inner workings of a family when the wife and mother falls into dementia. When her husband, who had been in the position of power, finds himself sidelined by powers beyond his control. And when their adult children are given the power to make decisions for their parents when no decision leads to happily ever after.

This novel began about ten years ago as journal entries that I wrote when my mother was diagnosed with dementia and later, Alzheimer's disease. She fought the symptoms with everything she had, but the most heart-crushing for me was my father's desperate denial of what was happening to her. Even when she stopped remembering who he was, even when she stopped being able to feed herself, he insisted that she was getting better. The pain became so intense that my mind began to escape into fantasy.

"Now I Remember I Love You" is the story of Nick and Evie Landry:

Evie Landry is slipping, and she knows it. She has trouble remembering the names of her children, and even of her loving husband, Nick. Nothing in the house seems to be in the right place. Sometimes, at night, she wakes up terrified of Nick and runs away, but the neighbors always call him and he takes her back to the place she no longer believes is her home.

Nick does everything he can to protect her, but one day she attacks him on the driveway and puts him in the hospital. The pressure to send her to long-term care, from well-meaning agencies, their doctor, and even their children, becomes overwhelming. Early one morning, Nick bundles Evie into their car and they begin a thousand-mile journey from Central California to Canada and their only hope of staying together.

Book club questions are included.