Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Still Alice

"Still Alice" by Lisa Genova
This is a story about a woman named Alice who is a Harvard professor and is diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's disease. It is written from her perspective and is very eye opening. She based who she was on her career and her success and all that begins to be taken away from her. This of course affects her relationships but she finds out that she still loves no matter her memory and maybe she is more than just a professor. This book is sad but truthful, revealing and captivating. "And the demands of the three little human beings born out of those pregnancies were more constant and time-consuming than those of any department head or type A student she'd ever come across." So true, motherhood is harder than anything else I have ever tried to accomplish, so much work but worth it. "He used to tell her everything, and she used to listen in rapt attention. She wondered when that had changed and who'd lost interest first, he in the telling or she in the listening." I think this speaks of taking our spouse for granted. We listen but are doing other things and we lose interest in listening to them over time. "The mother in her believed that the love she had for her daughter was safe from the mayhem in her mind, because it lived in her heart." "My yesterdays are disappearing, and my tomorrows are uncertain, so what do I live for? I live for each day. I live in the moment. Some tomorrow soon, I'll forget that I stood before you and gave this speech. But just because I'll forget it some tomorrow doesn't mean that I didn't live every second of it today. I will forget today, but that doesn't mean that today didn't matter." I think that is so powerful and meaningful even for us without this disease. Today is what matters and who knows who will have more than today so take it and live it to the fullest.

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