Death in Slow Motion
A Memoir of a Daughter, Her Mother, and the Beast Called Alzheimer's

This was a difficult and sad book to read – the story of the author’s experiences with her mother and Altzheimers. Not only did her mother have this terrible illness, which wipes out short term memory, but she had a painful ongoing stomach problem – which doctors were unable to alleviate. She also c......more

When Eleanor Cooney's once-brilliant mother could no longer manage in her Connecticut home because of her dementia, her daughter moved her to California in order to care for her. The slow erosion of her mind was a devastating experience for both of them. This is an honest and powerful memoir, beauti......more

I think there's a special club for those of us who have lost our mothers. There's something so devastating about that loss that I don't think you truly appreciate it until you're faced with it yourself. And there's a particularly devastating pain in watching your mother suffer and die before your ey......more

I found this book 19 years after its initial printing. The story is tough, one my family has experienced first hand. I also volunteer with a local hospice and many of the patients I spend time with have dementia as part of their diagnosis. Despite its difficult subject, it was an easy read for me. M......more

A difficult read, to be sure, but so poignant and beautiful. Cooney is one of the few memoirist I've read (of late) that simply tells it like it is: She's honest about the pain that Alzheimer's has brought to her life (as well as her mother's), but also the joy that her mother's life brought to othe......more