Louis Brood of Mount Laurel, NJ passed away at home on February 1, 2021, surrounded by his loving family with the song “Danny Boy” playing and a kitty curled against him. Lou…
I looked back into my journal from this day last year. My mother had been dead for just over 4 months and I was still thrashing beneath the weight of my grief.…
Ever since they were boys, my father and his brother Sam worked side-by-side 6 days a week running the family upholstery shop. A. Brood & Sons. That store was the lifeblood of…
I feel as if I’ve swallowed a pail of glass shards looking between these photos, trying desperately in my mind to piece back together the last 7 years. Alzheimer’s disease bestowed a…
We were at the podiatrist’s office the other day and Dad was in a silly mood. He was making faces at the nurse behind her back, and we both had to suppress…
My mom wasn’t my best friend. We had a really difficult relationship through my childhood up until I got out from under her roof in my mid-twenties. When I returned to my…
Back in May 2013, 3 years after my parents were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, my siblings and I decided to trial a month-long respite stay for both of them at a local memory care facility.…
I lay a gentle hand on her shoulder. It’s nearly 11 am and she’s still tucked under last night’s covers. “Momma,” I say, then I stroke the hair falling soft across her…
Before my father’s Alzheimer’s stole half his lifetime of memories, his favorite story to tell was about the day we met our beautiful Beleza. We had already picked out a name for…
The house is quiet but for the spring birds singing above the distant and continuous sigh of the highway. Momma’s bedroom door is ajar and I enter to find her lying so…
