Travels in Place: A Journey Into Memory Loss [Paperback]

Travels in Place is the tender memoir of a daughter's reflections as she loses her beloved mother to dementia. The work promotes the radical notion that some things in life are not ours to fix-which does not mean that we either run from them or stand helpless amid decline and suffering. Faced with the often heartbreaking, sometimes humorous situations of patients suffering severe memory loss and dementia, the author urges us to leave fruitless efforts to go farther and do more and instead to trust ourselves to be more.Through her story, the author leads us to understand that as caregivers to patients with Alzheimer's-like diseases, we may not be able to cure the symptoms, restore past or future, or even always make the present bearable. But we can learn to go deeper into ourselves, explore the evolving relationship more thoroughly where we are, and openly embrace its moments with honesty and love. Thus will the reader find the power to transform even these difficult travels into a life-giving journey.Born in 1950 in Hamburg, Germany, Christiane's journey includes teenage motherhood, a Masters Degree in religious studies, a twenty-year career in university academic administration, and marathon running.Newly retired, Chris and her husband celebrate life in Colorado and Maine amid family, friends, and Nature.Christiane continues to explore life's rich dilemmas through thoughtful experience, voracious reading, and reflective writing.