Take This From Me….the book you need for the time in life you don’t want to be in
Watching your loved one decline is one of the hardest, most defeating, heartbreaking processes.
Take This From Me is a multi-dimensional book by a mental health clinician, combined with personal experience, and real-life tools to ease the painful process.
Coming soon- print, ebook, and digital learning
Want to feel less alone?
I wrote TTFM because I felt isolated, defeated, and overwhelmed witnessing the decline of my mother. I also want others to know:
Losing a parent sucks.
Watching memory decline is crushing
Having unfinished business lingers
The broken attachment in memory loss leaves a mark
Death is hard to truly understand
Watching a parent die feels powerless
Even in adulthood loss is an injury
Because I don’t know how to be okay when everything is falling apart
Life after caregiving is its process
All humans experience death and we are unprepared
I want a different type of life, legacy, and path to understanding the loss
We all want to heal after hurting
What makes this book different?
Take this from me has multiple components. Some of those insights are from the “voice” of personal experience with cognitive decline, parent loss, and grief. Then there are sections from my professional “voice.” I have backgrounds in multiple areas that I write to the reader in. There are the mental health components combined with a background in Applied Behavior Analysis. The goal was to combine useful, practical relevant information, insight, and opportunities to help others.
a look inside…
“Make no mistake, this is hard. Caregiving constitutes a lot of roles and requirements. It will be all the things: fast, slow, boring, accelerated in some ways, stalled in others, disruptive, emotional, exhausting…I could keep going, but the point is: You will need to care for yourself. Care for your body. Care for your emotions. Care for your mind. Care for your well-being. Do that and you will be better prepared and more capable of helping others.”
“There is no other way to say it, but this is the hard stuff. The perpetual descent and march to the finish line will take place at some point. It’s final in memory decline. There is no cure, no miracle reversal or drug that will make everything okay. So, when you’re sitting in these stages and facing what is left of the life of a loved one, grief is the uninvited guest. It’s a slap in the face we will all receive. And guess what? Grief has no boundaries. No timeline, no instructions, and no limit to its depth, scope, or width. Grief is the worst.”
“We may be the most advanced society regarding technology, medicine, and education, but I can guarantee we are illiterate in grief, loss, and death. For an event that is inevitable and happens to all people regardless of age, ethnicity, race, religion, or status, our understanding of death and the loss process is so far behind, and we often question, “Why don’t I know this?”
“The parent-child bond has been shifted, the spouse-spouse tie is untied, the family-to-family point of connection is stunted...whoever you are caring for that is no longer part of this world leaves an empty space.”
