Measure of the Heart: A Father’s Alzheimer’s, A Daughter’s Return

Mary Ellen Geist decided to leave her job as a CBS Radio anchor to return home to Michigan when her father’s Alzheimer’s got to be too much for her mother to shoulder alone. She chose to live her life by a different set of priorities: to be guided by her heart, not by outside accomplishment and recognition. The New York Times wrote a front page story on Mary Ellen on Thanksgiving 2005. It was one of the most e-mailed stories for the month. Through her own story and through interviews with doctors and other women who’ve followed the “Daughter Track”–leaving a job to care for an aging parent–Geist offers emotional insights on how to encourage interaction with the loved one you’re caring for, how to determine daily tasks that are achievable and rewarding, how the personality of the patient affects the caregiving and the progression of the diseases, as well as invaluable advice about how caregivers can take care of themselves while accomplishing the Herculean task of constantly caring for others. Geist’s years in journalism allow her to report on Boomers’ caretaking dilemmas with professional objectivity, and her warm voice brings compassion and insight to one of the most difficult stituations a son or daughter may face during his or her life.