Carmie Renda

My Mother, My Friend, My Child: Life Before and After Alzheimer's Carmie Renda

As many as five million Americans have been diagnosed and are living with Alzheimer's. This number will triple in fifteen years. This disease is real and has no boundaries. Before my mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, I knew little about the disease. I now have a better understanding of what she felt and how she coped in the beginning. In this book I have tried to show how my mother went from being my mother to my best friend to my child. To capture Mom's entire life story, I've mixed in my journal, Home Alone with Mom -- from ten days we spent together in 2010 -- with stories from her life in the Italian-American community on the south side of Des Moines, Iowa.