Reflections on Raindrops: a Daughter's Diary of Decade Dedication to Two Parents Struggling with Alzheimer's Disease and Vascular Dementia

Be careful what you pray for! The first week in January 2005, a family’s prayers for direction were answered. Reflections on Raindrops, by Jeanie T. Roberts, is the memoir of a couple in their sixties who delay retirement dreams to care for parents with dementia. With only eighteen years between their ages, Jeanie and her mother had grown up together. It was natural that Jeanette should surrender her battle with the advancing stages of Alzheimer’s disease to her daughter and son-in-law. Their story is often painful, sometimes humorous, and authentically coupled with survival tips learned during their on job training. Gene and Jeanie were aware that dealing with the mental and physical deterioration accompanying her mother’s fight with Alzheimer’s disease would be difficult, but they had not recognized the challenges arising from her step-father’s advancing vascular dementia. As her parents regressed from familiar functioning adults into childlike strangers, Gene and Jeanie drew on strategies learned while teaching and coaching sometimes reluctant teens. The story of their ten years together is enriched by poems Jeanie wrote during times of mounting stress, along with scripture references that would help them mold their struggles into victories.