The thing about caregiving is…
… when you are climbing the steep caregiver learning curve,
swamped by all that is required of you to observe and learn,
you quickly become desperate and feel the need…
for support, for someone to talk to,
for reassurance that you are doing OK,
and especially not to feel alone.
It is then that you realize that information from other caregivers, might be helpful.
It is truly unbelievable how fast that happens.
So, grab hold.
The author, a former solo caregiver, offers the comfort of an outreached hand.
Read of her experiences, of when for 10 years she cared for
her spouse with Alzheimer’s, COPD, vascular dementia and anxiety.
Through her insightful stories
Judith Allen Shone focuses on
what a spouse-caregiver might expect as she discovers
the challenges and struggles, successes and disappointments, desperations and joys, of caring for her loved one.
Peppered with humour, these stories are meant to inform and inspire caregivers, their families, and those looking for insight, encouragement and meaning!
Amid the chaotic life of a spouse-caregiver, discover an unintended story of love that emerged through words of hope, courage, reassurance, and understanding.
“We read to know we are not alone.“
– C.S. Lewis – author and theologian
Visit The Commentary page to read comments from readers
THE JOURNEY OVERVIEW
A lot of people ask me what I feel helped me most during my years of caregiving.
I tell them, “It was experience stories from other caregivers that gave me strength.”
The stories in Is There Any Ice Cream? and Did You Hide the Cookies? tell of a senior whose life is thrown into confusion from the unexpected worries of caring for her partner diagnosed with COPD, Alzheimer’s disease and anxiety just months after their retirement.
Told with honesty and compassion, Shone tells of her intimate, and sometimes desperate, moments of events that happen in their day-to-day life.
Accounts of overwhelming challenges weave in evolving transformations that these diseases inflict on their relationship and that influence their lives and their love.
Shone reveals a life that exhausts her, drains her, tests her patience and survival instincts, and pulls at her heart strings.
In the end, it is an emerging gratefulness that
revitalizes her confidence and eventually calms her despair and increases her devotion to her loved one,
a love from which she draws strength to be courageous as she accepts her gift of caregivier, as they face the unfamiliar world of Alzheimer’s.
These books confirm that when caregivers begin to recognize signs and new behaviours, courage and confidence replace anxiety.
Most caregiver angels I’ve met have no guide book or road map,
so they became students of ‘how to’ while on the job.
That is exactly why shared caregiver stories are so important.
That is exactly why it is such an honour to receive the
recommendation from AlzAuthors for these books.
.
THE BOOKS
Accepting the Gift of Caregiving series
Part One, Is There Any Ice Cream?
Part Two, Did You Hide the Cookies?
Is There Any Ice Cream?
Surviving the Challenges of Caregiving for a Loved One with Alzheimer’s, Anxiety and COPD, Accepting the Gift of Caregiving, Part One
(2019)
Did You Hide the Cookies?
Inescapable Heartaches of Caregiving for My Love with Alzheimer’s, Anxiety and COPD, Accepting the Gift of Caregiving, Part Two
(2020)
Author Kurt Vonnegut must have been thinking of caregivers when he said:
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
THE PRINT SIZE
Available in eBook, and published with LARGER print in paperback and hardcover. Order from local booksellers or online from your favourite book provider.
NOTE:
You are in the right place!
This site has replaced website “Caregiver-Challenges,” at caregiveralzheimerstory.com.
Readers have been re-directed here, to my “Caregiver Book” site.
Thank you for visiting.
see also The Listening Room for text snippets from the books read by the author.
THE STORIES – ESSENTIAL RESOURCES for caregivers
“Storytelling forges connections among people, and between people and ideas. Stories convey the culture, history, and values that unite people.” ~Vanessa Boris, HarvardBusiness.org
These two books, the Accepting the Gift of Caregiving set, fill a need that has never been greater: providing, emotional stories that should be included in the caregiver’s toolbox along with their growing ‘to do’ lists, in years ahead.
You will discover a little about what’s ahead in the caregiver’s world. The job is tiring, the road is bumpy and lonely.
You will accompany the author from diagnosis to late stages of Alzheimer’s, in times of joy and times of uncertainty,.
You will experience the empathy, compassion and respect that sparked the transformation of doubts and apprehensions that evolved into courage.
You will be part of routine settings, sit in classes, attend gatherings, visit in doctor and hospital appointments.
You will follow as she unveils the gratifying emotions of day-to-day activities, as well as the uneasy moments of anguish and heartache, as her stories validate the need for ongoing support in the world of caregiving
Yes, our lives will be different, but our emotions will feel so very much alike.
THE VIDEO: … sharing more experiences.
“This is soooooo worth the listen! Totally “my story” thank you 
” `
~ Linda Stock, Facebook comment.
You gain strength, courage, and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, ‘I have lived through this horror. I can take the next thing that comes along.’ You must do that thing you think you cannot do.“
Eleanor Roosevelt, You Learn By Living: Eleven Keys for a More Fulfilling Life
Caregivers will be able to draw their courage, strength and confidence from the well of caring experiences told by another caregiver who has withstood the whirlwinds and encountered the confusion and the darkness, of Alzheimer’s World, and who, eventually, worked out how to make it through. . . doing that thing she thought she could not do.
REVIEWS and COMMENTS
Authors depend on reviews and comments to help new readers decide if the book is a match to what they are searching for. I’d be grateful for any comments left on Amazon or the online site where you purchased my books. See examples of comments I have received personally. Thank you so much.
Visit our sister blog site for caregivers Accepting the Gift of Caregiving
where caregivers encourage one another and learn through sharing:
Each day, do something to make others smile and your heart sing. ~jas
THANK YOU for your kind words you leave on Amazon, that you send me in emails or texts or from contact page here. I truly appreciate them all! 🥰
ORDER stories that inspire and encourage caregivers from local booksellers, or online, including Amazon, – eBook – plus ** Larger print ** in both paperback and hardcover.
visit: My Bookstore
“The Gift of Caregiving” © Judith Allen Shone 2019-2023
caregiver-books.com 
Thank you, Natalie, for your kind words. When my journey began in 2011 I had no idea about where I was headed, no role model, no clue as to the life before us. I wrote these books, stories, for those who might feel alone, as I did, to be my hand reaching out now to help others, especially since now I know connections are so important! I wish you friendship and connection on your journey.
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I have read your books and shared them with another caregiver, who also was glad she read them. I hope you will write the last of your story.
Your words made me feel like we were friends, that I knew you, as I read things that I had gone through, too. Thank you for writing your stories.
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