by marionroach on April 1, 2010
WHILE MARGARET AND I battled our mother’s 15-year Alzheimer’s disease, we also battled one another, as well as pretty much everyone else. Or that’s the way it still feels, even all these years later. And maybe nothing got us mixing it up as did the suggestion by one friend that we explain her fate to our mother and let her take her own life. There were such vast differences in how Margaret and I viewed our mother’s care and treatment, and ultimately her fate. Never was the she said/she said aspects of our lives more vivid, and never did I realize how universal this dynamic can be. Until now, thanks to Zoe FitzGerald Carter’s new book. [click to continue…]
by marionroach on October 1, 2009
IT IS OCTOBER, THE HARVEST, that great time for taking stock. Me? I’m grateful for many things, particularly the friendship and love of Margaret, my only sibling. We didn’t always see things the way we do now, and in that we missed huge chunks of each other’s lives. The reason for our separation? Our mother. The coming together? I credit time and patience and adult wisdom. And thinking about what might make a good harvest tale, I’m taking a chance here, and offering one about our mother, though I know Margaret will agree that here on the blog, at least, only good comes from who she was. [click to continue…]
by marionroach on May 8, 2009
On May 10, HBO begins airing a three-part series on Alzheimer’s disease. It’s a subject that the TSP sisters know something about. In 1983, Marion wrote the first, first-person account of the illness ever published, in The New York Times Magazine. This week, she wrote an opinion column about it in The Los Angeles Times.
I LOVED HER. It was as simple and as complicated as that. My sister didn’t love her, or she did until she didn’t, but then our mother got sick, we had to care for her, and then things got complicated for everybody. We cared for two different mothers. That’s the shortest explanation for what happened to us. The longer story is far more complex. [click to continue…]
by marionroach on January 3, 2009
WE ALL KNOW that at least one of our New Year’s resolutions should involve the sisterhood–being a better friend, staying in closer touch, listening instead of having only our say. So not to be a nag about this, but here’s another one to add to your list: Get involved in the research to eradicate a sister’s illness. [click to continue…]
WHILE MARGARET AND I battled our mother’s 15-year Alzheimer’s disease, we also battled one another, as well as pretty much everyone else. Or that’s the way it still feels, even all these years later. And maybe nothing got us mixing it up as did the suggestion by one friend that we explain her fate to our mother and let her take her own life. There were such vast differences in how Margaret and I viewed our mother’s care and treatment, and ultimately her fate. Never was the she said/she said aspects of our lives more vivid, and never did I realize how universal this dynamic can be. Until now, thanks to Zoe FitzGerald Carter’s new book. [click to continue…]
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