WULOLIFE
The Weight of Memory Author: [UK] Nicci Gerrard Publisher: Beijing Daily Press
The Weight of Memory Author: [UK] Nicci Gerrard Publisher: Beijing Daily Press
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Description
Introduction · · · · · ·
An elegy for my father who suffers from dementia
A journey of loss for a person with dementia
A long farewell to aging and death
Sunday Times, New Statesman, Financial Times Book of the Year
What does dementia mean? As the plague of our time, it is around us and perhaps in our own future.
This is the story of people with dementia and their caregivers. The author begins with his father who suffers from dementia, and then extends it to the stories of many people, including people at different stages of dementia, caregivers as partners or children, as well as scientists, psychotherapists and doctors. Through delicate conversations and in-depth investigations, the author tells how dementia gradually takes away everything, and explores different forms of professional intervention.
This is also our story. The memory and language loss and shame caused by dementia may also happen to us as we inevitably grow older. Going deep into dementia, the author takes us into a hidden place to think about the meaning of "home", the meaning of being human, and how to better face aging and death.
★ "A life without memory is not a life at all." — An elegy for my father who suffers from dementia.
As a way of editing our lives, memory connects different selves into an organic whole. When dementia sneaks into life, it will constantly attack the most precious things of human beings - taking away memories and abilities, taking away love, and making people enter a world of self-forgetfulness. The author's father has been with dementia for more than ten years, and finally lost his mind completely after being trapped in the hospital for five weeks due to the treatment of leg ulcers. As the keeper of his father's memory, this book is both an elegy written by the author to his father who suffers from dementia, and a continuation of life that keeps his father by his side forever.
★ “The countdown begins.” – Explore the journey of loss experienced by different dementia patients at different stages.
Today, about one in six people over 80 will have dementia, and the older they are, the higher the probability of getting the disease. In addition to the father with dementia, the author also interviewed dementia patients of different ages and identities, telling the story of how they went from being hesitant in the early stages but still able to express their feelings, to becoming "carefree" and "treating their children as brothers and sisters", losing empathy, being unable to take care of themselves, no longer responding, being "dehumanized", becoming a "living dead", being in a state of fragmentation and forgetfulness, and the aftermath of life - death, mourning and a good end.
About the Author
About the Author
Nicci Gerrard is a British novelist and journalist who has long been a contributor to The Observer. She won the Orwell Prize, the most important political writing award in the UK, in 2016. In 2014, after her father, who suffered from dementia, passed away, she and her friends launched the "John's Campaign" named after her father to fight for hospital visitation rights for the families of dementia patients; in 2016, the campaign received support from the UK National Health Service.
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