Vicki Tapia published a memoir in early 2014 detailing the painful journey she took as a caregiver to a mother with Alzheimer’s disease.
“Somebody Stole My Iron: A Family Memoir of Dementia” also documented her father’s Parkinson’s diagnosis and the related dementia. She wrote the book to give others what she didn’t have at the time.
“When I was going through this I couldn’t find any books,” Tapia said, sitting at her dining room table. “I wanted to read what another caregiver was going through, not just medical books. I was looking for an author’s personal stories.”
About a year later, she got an email from Jean Lee, author of “Alzheimer’s Daughter,” a memoir that told how she cared for her two parents diagnosed simultaneously with Alzheimer’s.
“We had instant sisterhood,” Tapia said.
They were soon joined by Marianne