Through Google, I came across this novelette, which happens to be written by a journalist in St. John's, Newfoundland, whom I had brief contact with around 7 years ago. "Atlantic Nights" was serialized in the summer of 2015 in newspapers across Eastern Canada, and it is free to read, chapter-by-chapter, at the link below.
http://www.thetelegram.com/Living/Atlantic-Nights/2015-06-12/article-4180420/Atlantic-Nights/1
Well-written, and good insights into the character of Helen, who has Alzheimer's, and whose grown children have finally put her into a care facility. Now they must deal with the fact that they have told her that their father Tom has died, but Helen can't ever remember that, and in fact Helen was nursing Tom for a long time at home while he had colon cancer.
When she asks repeatedly "Where is Tom?" the two daughters and a son agree they won't hurt her anymore with the truth, but launch out into made-up stories about their father being out on the road, as the travelling salesman he had been all his life.
But strangely, the fiction turns into the reality that Helen had always hidden away.
Enjoy. I read this over the course of a few days.
My husband, with dementia, just returned from taking our car to the garage for a repair, and I had written down instructions for him, so he handled the errand just fine,
including phoning me to tell me how much the bill was - not that he could remember our phone number. I wrote that down also.
So, as stated before, we are at a plateau.
I appreciated "Atlantic Nights" also because my late mother-in-law was much like Helen, and she died with Alzheimer's in 2002.
http://www.thetelegram.com/Living/Atlantic-Nights/2015-06-12/article-4180420/Atlantic-Nights/1
Well-written, and good insights into the character of Helen, who has Alzheimer's, and whose grown children have finally put her into a care facility. Now they must deal with the fact that they have told her that their father Tom has died, but Helen can't ever remember that, and in fact Helen was nursing Tom for a long time at home while he had colon cancer.
When she asks repeatedly "Where is Tom?" the two daughters and a son agree they won't hurt her anymore with the truth, but launch out into made-up stories about their father being out on the road, as the travelling salesman he had been all his life.
But strangely, the fiction turns into the reality that Helen had always hidden away.
Enjoy. I read this over the course of a few days.
My husband, with dementia, just returned from taking our car to the garage for a repair, and I had written down instructions for him, so he handled the errand just fine,
including phoning me to tell me how much the bill was - not that he could remember our phone number. I wrote that down also.
So, as stated before, we are at a plateau.
I appreciated "Atlantic Nights" also because my late mother-in-law was much like Helen, and she died with Alzheimer's in 2002.
