Added to ADEAR Center's Online Database!

6/24/2011

Hello Michelle and Marie,

This is to let you know a preliminary database record has been cataloged of your book, “An Evolution of Love,” in the ADEAR Center’s database. You can search for it online at http://adlib.alzheimers.org/adear/alzdb/fullrec.aspx?id=11866. This book is in a batch of items that will go to our abstractor in 4 weeks, and she will write an abstract, select audience codes and subject codes.

Thank you very much for sending ADEAR a copy of your book. We greatly appreciate having a copy for our online database viewers.  It is a moving account of your family’s personal experience caring for Bob as he went through this debilitating disease, and good to see that you have included some special memories of life with him before FTD struck.

Warm regards,

Trammell Maury, Librarian

NIA ADEAR Center /Project/JBS International, Inc.

Loved Your Book

5/4/2011

Michelle,

I loved the book and was so grateful that I found it on Amazon. I bought it yesterday and read it last night.

Thank you so much for writing to me. I truly appreciate it and sometimes I feel so alone in this journey.

Debbie

Seeking Support

4/26/2011

I just found your book online and will be purchasing it. My husband is 45 and is being “watched” for bvFTD. This is by far the most isolating and difficult thing that I have ever experienced. Our family doesn’t understand, we don’t have kids and he has pushed everyone away, this leaves his care to me. I am desperately seeking ways to network and stay sane. Any suggestions would be hugely appreciated…Thanks so much for your time and I have so much respect for you. Alison

An Evolution of Love

3/19/2011

Hello Marie, Unfortunately my 60 year old husband has finally been diagnosed. I have had your book for several months and want you to know that your Bob and my husband (and our families) have followed the exact same path to this terrible disease.

I want to thank you for writing this very informative book. I have several books on FTD but none have helped me to understand what was happening to my husband like your book.

I pray everyday that my husband will not suffer the many terrible indignities that this disease could bring. As much as I already miss him, I do not want him to suffer.

Again, thank you. Thelma

Your book

2/4/2011

Greetings, I belong to the North Penn Area Support Group for Alzheimer's. My husband was first diagnosed with Alzheimer's then Aphasia, then Frontal lobe Dementia.

Your book was a total inspiration to me. I cried because I know how you felt in so many situations. Behaviour is really a problem with my husband and also he cannot process any language, He can not understand anything that I say and he can only say one phrase. I have no idea what that phrase means because he says it for everything.

I read the book in one day, and totally understood your feelings. You and your daughter were wonderful caregivers and I so admire you.

Once again thank you for writing the book and God Bless You and your daughter.

Your book

3/30/2009

Hi,

I just finished reading the story about Bob Sykes and was overwhelmed with relief that I am not the only one living with a spouse that is suffering from FTD, in addition to ALS. Last July my husband (age 45) was officially diagnosed with ALS following a number of tests (similar to FTD testing) and when I started to research ALS on the internet, I was overcome with relief when I learned that my husband's strange behavior that he had been exhibiting for quite some time, was due to a cognitive component of ALS known as FTD. Since last summer, it seems my husband's FTD has progressed more noticeably then his physical deterioration with ALS. Because of his cognitive decline, he "retired" from his career of 25+ years with BMW automobiles and now spends a few hours each day volunteering in the library at my daughter's elementary school. Other than his volunteering, he does not have a daily routine with the exception of emptying the household trash cans!

I would like to thank Marie and her daughter, Michelle, for relaying their memories of Bob and the very difficult trials they experienced along the way. It was so comforting to know that there are others out there that have or are, experiencing the same things I am as a spouse, parent and caregiver.

Amy

An Evolution of Love

3/1/2008

Thank you both for putting your experience into words for others to gain insight and understanding. My husband is in the last stages of Pick's Disease (Frontotemporal Dementia). He has both the behavior and language variant. Jim was a pastor for nearly 40 years before we had to take early retirement. I know the pain of saying goodbye while he is still here physically......each day, I visit Jim in the special care unit where he has been for the last year.....and each day I lose a little more of the beauty of who he was, but like you our family's love for Jim never changes. He still enjoys family visits from his kids, grandkids, brothers and sisters, neices and nephews.

I enjoyed your book and out of your suffering, others will be helped.

Judy