Renee Pirie

The Caregiver's Guide to the Universe Renee Pirie

The Caregiver's Guide to the Universe is a narrative revealing the humorous and unorthodox methods my father used to care for my mother after she developed early-onset Alzheimer's disease in her late forties. Although he was uneducated and semiliterate, he used his superpowers to care for her 24/7 for over a quarter of a century before her death on the outside finally caught up with her death on the inside. As she metamorphosed, he kept his love alive through music and teenage love notes. He survived tragedy as a teenager, tragedy with his cherished wife, and somewhere in between, he taught my siblings and I the true meaning of life by weaving across the lines between reality and dreams. According to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America (AFA), over five million Americans have Alzheimer's and one to four family members act as caregivers for each individual with the disease. The Caregiver's Guide to the Universe fills a much needed niche being a true story of an ordinary man in love with the memory of someone without one. Wildly popular novels on Alzheimer's such as Still Alice and The Notebook continue to fascinate readers. The true love story portrayed in this memoir will not only fascinate them, it will inspire them.