The House on Beartown Road : A Memoir of Learning and Forgetting

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for Every Member of the Sandwich Generation
Review: Every day in my work as a Long-Term Care Insurance Specialist I work with families as they try and develop a Strategy to deal with the the potential for a love one or themsleves needing long term care. In most cases until something happens to one's own family most people are in deniel. "It will happen to someone else but never to me or our family."

I always try to paint a picture for potential clients by using my own families experiences with needing care to make the issues more real. From now on I will just give them a copy of the book. It will do a much better job.

I read the "House On Beartown Road" in one sitting on a rainy Sunday with tears in my eyes as I finally understood how lucky my own family was to have had my mom as a fulltime caregiver to both sets of grandparents as well as my father over a period of years. People like Elizabeth Cohen and my mom are great examples of loving family members that did what needed to be done with grace, dignity and a sense of humor. I didn't understand or fully appreciate the concept of being a caregiver while running around in my on life and watching my mom from a distance but after reading the book I sure did!

I strongly suggest that every adult with aging parents read the book today as tomorrow may be to late. It will make you think in many different ways. For some reason I really think the author wrote the book to help the rest of us to be better prepared to deal with this growing national crisis of aging parents. Thanks to Ms. Cohen.

Th

Rating:
Summary: Excellent read! You won't want it to end.
Review: Few books have brought me to tears. This one did. The author writes in a matter-of-fact way about the heart-wrenching disease of Alheimer's, its impact to her life, and the lives of those around her. I didn't want the book to end. It is a quick read. Great book.

Rating:
Summary: The most beautifully written memoir
Review: I've read and reviewed lots of books about Alzheimer's, but I think I can honestly say this is the most beautifully written that I've ever read. Elizabeth Cohen, at the time a single parent, writes of her baby girl Ava's growing and learning at the same time that she write's of her retired Economics professor father's forgetting and his descent into Alzheimer's disease. Set in a rural New York state farmhouse, the events of daily life bring both tears and laughter, and the helpful caring neighbors warm our hearts. Every time I began reading, I didn't want to put down this book, and yet, I didn't want to finish because I knew how I would miss Elizabeth, her Daddy, baby Ava, Jody the helpful caregiver, and all of the wonderful neighbors that surrounded them. Highly recommended, a must read for all caregivers of Alzheimer's patients!

Rating:
Summary: Poignant, honest, beautifully written
Review: Poignant, honest, beautifully written, this is the story of a woman of 40, her father of 80 and her daughter who is not yet 1. Elizabeth Cohen is truly in the middle as she struggles to care for both her father and her child, while working and trying to maintain some sort of life in an old farmhouse in rural New York. (Her young husband has found the stress too great and has taken off.) The author, who is used to viewing herself as the kind of person who receives help from others, does receive kindness and help from her neighbors, but also develops into a strong and loving person who can cope with life's hardships. As she struggles to keep things going, she stands back occasionally and watches with awe as her father and daughter cross each other in their own journeys, her father backward to a time of knowing/understanding very little, and her daughter forward to a place of knowledge, competence and understanding. The way the little girl and the old man love each other and help each other is also poignantly expressed. This book is unsentimental but emotionally powerfully, and told with a truth and honesty that grab the reader.

Rating:
Summary: A Page-Turner! Moving and Uplifting.
Review: This book is an incredible, fast, fun read. It's heartfelt but often hilarious too. As Elizabeth Cohen manages her rapidly progressing infant and her rapidly regressing dad she tells an amazing story of human survival and will. She reminds us of the comforts of family, of poetry, of neighbors. What I love most about this book is how the author finds the good in a situation where most people would find only heartache. She reminds us of the beauty of everyday life, and of what's important. A celebration of family, parents, kids, of what it means to learn, to think, to be human. I don't usually like memoirs but I highly recommend this one. I've read it twice and couldn't put it down either time.