The Circle - A Walk with Dementia

by Sally Hughes Smith

Smiths inspiring personal account of closing the family home and moving her mother into an assisted living facility addresses the emotional and human side of the disease of dementia. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0977923509
• ISBN13: 9780977923502
• Release Date: December 2006
• Publisher: Medical University of South Carolina Foundati
• Length: 108 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.5" x 8.5"

Customer Reviews

Compassionate Pragmatism

Sally Hughes Smith's first-person narrative walks us along a path of joy, loss, love, and acceptance. "The Circle" is a soul-searching blend of romantisim and pragmatism in which she shares with us the compassionate plan of action that she and her family implemented to cope with what is becoming a crisis for more and more families. As a practicing psychotherapist I have recommended her book to many of my collegues working with families who have loved ones diagnosed with Dementia and Alzheimer's Disease. This book is destined to become a useful tool for most, if not all of us.

The circle reviewed

A warm, positive, honest account of the emotional journey of dealing with a parent who is aging with memory loss. Sally wrote this as a diary and friends suggested she publish it. Everyone has something to learn from this book as we are all aging. I recommend that health professionals read this , esp medical students but really it applies to all families as we will all have to deal with the loss of a parent at some stage. A very worthwhile book, and it makes a great gift.

Along with the furniture....

I read Sally's book and immediately passed it on to my mother. Aside from enjoying the family bits, it prompted her to make sure certain aspects of her will were in place. Sally's gifts as a writer are apparent in her anecdotal treatment of her response along with her family's to her mother's disease. She brings light to the dark and in the end alerts us to our final responsibility as a parent.

Soothing to the Soul

Sally Smith's personal account provides much needed validation for the myriad of emotions we experience when someone we have loved so deeply and for so long begins to slip away into the hands of this horrible disease. The humor and warmth with which she writes is a valuable gift to anyone struggling with this issue, and with all proceeds going to aid research efforts, it is not only a must read, but a must buy.

a gem

Sally Hughes Smith has done a service for all of us who have aging parents as she tackles hard issues with robust honesty, vivacity, humor, and a beautiful grace. I love the freshness of her journal writing as it allows the reader into the immediacy of her wonder and dismay as events unfold, as it reveals the ache of a long love for her mother, and as she reveals a slow awakening within herself. The fact that all of the proceeds of this book go to medical research for Alzheimer's reflects a generosity already palpable in this book. It is rare to find something so genuine, unedited, eruptive, and real.