“These stairs are getting slower and slower,” Mom comments as we walk down the three flights to the street. I laugh at her expressive way...

Mom’s sister, my Auntie Barbara, is visiting from London. It is great to see her. She is a wild, funny, woman with strong opinions and a...

It is fitting that when our kids were small, my mom used to call herself “Savtarella,” the Hebrew equivalent of Grandma-ella, after that...

When Mom is angry, there is no reasoning with her: Alzheimer’s has robbed her of that intellectual function. Come the late afternoon,...

Mom’s attention fluctuates greatly. We are walking outside noticing the red hibiscus when she veers off course and tells me she’s looking...

As soon as you start measuring good deeds to determine which is greater, which takes priority over the other—you have already entered...

Those of us with relatively good health take feeling well for granted. When we get sick, no matter how minor the illness, all that...

“Do you think we made Savta happy?” I asked my daughter, Liora, as we were returning from Netanya. (Savta is the Hebrew word for...

I recently heard a radio show about an Alzheimer’s patient, who, when unable to draw a clock as part of his doctor’s assessment, went...

I try hard not to treat my mother as if she were my child. When my dad asked her how old she was, Mom first said 12, then 17. It is safe...

I recently watched the Disney movie Frozen with my mom. I’d seen it several times before with my own kids, so I was curious as to how Mom...

The hardest aspect of growing old or being sick is recognizing our limitations. What we could do yesterday we may not be able to do...

I blame myself. I blame my cell phone. These phones suck us in and divert our attention. That's why I missed Mom when she came out of the...

“To forget your birthday is…tragic,” Mom declared in a moment of clarity. We watched her bounce between unbridled joy, disbelief and even...

We are standing in the middle of the mall and we have a half hour to spend before my father picks us up. Mom is agitated. She wants to be...

We seem to have turned a corner. Mom has finished her course of antibiotics, and is doing much better. She was more her positive self and...

Two weeks since I last wrote and my mom is still ill. She has a urinary tract infection that won't go away. She's been on three types of...

How naïve I was to think I could weather this devastation that is Alzheimer’s and maintain my wits. Mom is disintegrating before my very...

Mom is running a fever and has a cold. Pretty common in winter. In fact, I’m nursing a bad cold, too. It seems that not even the flu...

“Was I there, too?” Mom asks as my dad tells us about a concert they attended Monday night. “Of course,” he responds. “I don’t remember,”...