Memory, My Mother and Me
January 26th, 2015
Nothing prepared Cathie Borrie for living with her mother and attending to her mother’s onset of Alzheimer’s disease, even though Borrie had trained as a nurse in Vancouver and holds a Master of Public Health from Johns Hopkins University. Borris is a highly capable person, someone who also graduated from the University of Saskatchewan with a degree in law and has a Certificate in Creative Writing from the SFU Writer’s Studio. She eventually realized the best way to cope and to care was not to lead, but to follow. As she learned to accept the radical changes in her mother Jo’s personality and behavior, and even savour the intimacy that their shared journey afforded, Borrie began tape recording their conversations. She has incorporated some of their “wondrously poetic” dialogues for The Long Hello: Memory, My Mother and Me (Simon & Schuster $29.95), an encouraging memoir about dementia that will also serve as the basis for a stage play that Borrie is developing in conjunction with playwright James Fagan Tait. [Kimberly Mara Eclipse Photography] 9781476792514
Congratulations on publishing this book, Cathie. I certainly will check it out. You have reminded me of my days of living with my late husband and our teenage children during the four years he struggled with early onset AD. Now my present husband is showing signs of mild cognitive impairment and has started on an Alzheimer drug which was not available when my late husband needed it. I have blogged about our journey on our website at ianmooremorrans.com, but will also consider doing some recording of Ian’s and my conversations in the future.