When Your Parent Becomes Your Child by Ken Abraham

 

"Each evening, as the music moved from upbeat, joyful jubilation to a slower, more deliberate worshipful mood, I watched Mom out of the corner of my eye.  Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, she tilted her head back, closed her eyes, and raised her hands above her head as expressions of praise and adoration of the Lord.  She often did something similar during our Sunday services.  As I observed my mom worshipping God so unabashedly, I thought, It's worth moving her here just to see that."

-Excerpt from Chapter 12, "The Spiritual Matters," in When Your Parent Becomes Your Child

 

When Your Parent Becomes Your Child is a memoir written by Ken Abraham about the last years of his mother's life.  His mom, Minnie, developed dementia later on in her life.  This book is the story of how he spent the last years with his mom.  Readers who choose this book will learn about a very spiritual woman and how the dementia affected every area of her life.  There is a lot of information about the disease and wisdom from a very caring son on how to address situations when caring for a parent who is suffering from dementia.

It only took me two days to read this book.  I couldn't put it down.  It is very well written, albeit sad.  As a daughter of aging parents, this book provided some answers I had questions to about how to handle possible situations with mine and my husband's parents.  I admire the family's love for their aging mother and the efforts they made to make sure the last years of her life were full of joy and comfort.

I would recommend this book to people with aging parents.  Even if you don't have a parent who is experiencing dementia, your parents will age and this book might offer some insight on how to approach and handle certain situations.  If you have a parent with dementia, this book can also bring some comfort and wisdom to you.

One of the best things about the book was the fact that Mrs. Abraham's relationship with Jesus was at the very core of who she was.  It radiated out into everything she did.  I love that and that she passed that love of the Lord onto her children.  What a testimony!

To read an excerpt from the book, please go here.

 

Disclosure statement:  This book was provided to me free as part of a free books for Bloggers program at Booksneeze.  I was not required to give a favorable review.  The thoughts and opinions here are entirely my own.