When Your Parent Becomes Your Child: A Journey of Faith Through My Mother's Dementia
Written by Ken Abraham
Narrated by Tim Lundeen
5/5
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About this audiobook
Ken Abraham
Ken Abraham is a New York Times best-selling author known around the world for his collaborations with high-profile public figures. A former professional musician and pastor, he is a popular guest with both secular and religious media. His books include One Soldier's Story with Bob Dole, Payne Stewart with Tracey Stewart, Falling in Love for All the Right Reasons with Dr. Neil Clark Warren, and Let's Roll! with Lisa Beamer.
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Reviews for When Your Parent Becomes Your Child
12 ratings2 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The idea of living past 100 years of age is now becoming the new norm. It is not uncommon to see a person above 96 living in an assisted living center or in a child’s home. The standard of living has now begun to morph into something new that has reset the retirement clock. It has forced seniors to work into their later years and often carry roles that they were not meant to carry. One of the unforeseen consequences of modern medicine is the rapid onset of dementia. In the last 30 years or so there seems to be an epidemic spread of severe memory loss that forces seniors to loose themselves and force families to make tough choices. This book is about one such situation. It is about a man named Ken Abraham and his mother Minnie. Ken like many other children find themselves the caretakers of their parents. In a time when most parents should be enjoying their golden years, Ken finds his mother drifting in a sea of confusion. Gone are the years spent with him and his family. Instead he must cope somehow by bearing the burden of caring for parent, his own offspring, job, and finances. This book was very personal for me. I, like Ken, am taking care of someone with severe dementia. My situation mirrored the author’s to the point of it being comical. My loved one is my grandmother and not my mother. As a 35 year old it is rather difficult being responsible for a senior, but one learns to handle it. This book was comforting for me and reminded me that there are many others out there that are experiencing the same situation. I enjoyed this book and appreciate the author sharing his story. I found it to be very helpful and I have to recommend it for sure!
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I am very happy that I was given the chance to review Ken Abraham's book 'When Your Parent Becomes Your Child'. Before reading this book I had always associated Dementia with Alzheimer's. I just assumed that they were one in the same, but they are not. Dementia is a cluster of symptoms (memory loss, forgetting how to do something or care for yourself), where Alzheimer's is a specific medical disease that has many of the symptoms of Dementia.
I enjoyed reading Ken's book. I have learned things about the illness that I never knew before. I am fortunate in that I haven't had to go through anything like this with either one of my parents, and I hope that I don't have to. In this book shares his mother's illness with us and her day to day life, care and quality of life.
Once Ken's mother came to visit with his family for a bit and woke him up in the middle of the night saying that there were men in white coats outside her window. Ken assured her there were not. He even went so far as to take her outside in the dark so she could look for herself.
Ken and his siblings overlooked many things at first and decided it was just old age. Such as their mother having a wreck because she forgot which pedal was for the gas and which pedal was for the break. She would forget to take her medicine or take to little or no enough. Accusing people of stealing from her all the time, to hoarding. She would have out burst and say inappropriate and sometimes hurtful things to people. She would even curse at times, something that she never had done before.
Ken talks about how he denied to himself that nothing was wrong with his mother, even when others noticed things he didn't. He talks about coming to terms with his mothers illness, deciding on her care and where she would live. He wanted the best care possible for his mother, but also care that was affordable.
I can only try to imagine how hard it was on his mother also. To go from caring for yourself and being independent to not being able to bathe, dress or care for yourself properly. This illness had to be frustrating for everyone. It would be a lot to shoulder caring for a parent with Dementia or Alzheimers and to help them keep their dignity also.
Throughout the book Ken talks about his mothers love for singing gospel songs and playing the piano. Even with her illness it seems she never forgot how to play the piano or the words to all the songs she loved. Ken's book is a must read for anyone that is caring for a parent. Even if you are not caring for you parent it is a wonderful book to read to help understand the illness. I enjoyed reading this book. It was sad at times because I kept thinking to myself "what if this were my mother?"