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ISBN: 9781459502765

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Pilgrim Souls

Caring for a Loved One with Dementia

This memoir focuses on an experience all of us dread. Pat Lotz was an accomplished author and editor, active in her community, and a loving wife and mother. She succumbed to dementia which was later diagnosed as Alzheimer’s at the age of 81. Jim Lotz, her husband, and himself the author of more than 20 books, became her primary caregiver and spent six years in this role before her death in 2012.

Growing numbers of people are falling victim to dementia, and the condition challenges health care professionals and the health care system because there is no cure or treatment. Many people unexpectedly find themselves in the same role as Jim — caregiver — because they don’t want to see their loved ones institutionalized before it is necessary. But caring for someone suffering from dementia is enormously challenging, and there are very few places to look for useful information and guidance. Jim’s experiences offer insight, understanding, and hope for others facing the same situation.

The past is often key to understanding the present for someone caring for a person with dementia. A caregiver who has shared a life is often able to understand what others could hardly guess at. Time and again in Jim’s narrative, he is able to bring the perspective of his knowledge of Pat, her values, her loves, her fears, and her life experiences to shed a light that makes her words and actions more understandable. For many, the best approach to coming to grips with dementia has been through the worlds of literature and film. To these resources we can now add Jim Lotz’s moving and compelling account of his life with his wife Pat before — and after — the onset of her dementia. In Pilgrim Souls, Jim has written a clear-eyed, emotionally honest and tremendously moving love story.

Contributors

Jim Lotz

Jim Lotz has had a diverse life as a scholar, researcher, writer and editor. Born in Liverpool, he served in the Royal Air Force before attending Manchester University where he graduated in geography. He immigated to Canada in 1954 and worked in the Far North as a researcher. In 1960 he married Pat, also a British immigrant, and he became a professor and researcher specializing in community development. He and his family moved to Halifax in 1973 where they have lived ever since. As well as writing 28 books on a variety of subjects, Jim's journalism has appeared far and wide. In 2012 he was awarded an honourary doctorate by Saint Mary's University, Halifax

Chapter Title Contents Contributors Pages Year Price

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Outlines the purpose of the book, why he wrote it, important information about cargiving, the progress of Pat’s diagnosis, and talks about the hope of the book to inspire, help and give … 12 $1.20

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An Introduction to the first part of the book, talks about what it means to care for someone with Dementia 7 $0.70

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Talks about Pat and his first Meeting 12 $1.20

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Outlines their lives before they were married 16 $1.60

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outlines our family backgrounds 16 $1.60

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deals with our careers, travel and the lifelong learning in which we engaged, eachin our own way. 38 $3.80

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covers our emotional relationships and how they developed through our married life. 31 $3.10

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An Introduction to the second part of the book, briefly discusses Mary Geist and Heather Menzies as caregivers. The importance of love in caregiving 8 $0.80

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In depth look at their discovery that Pat had dementia, the long process it took to be diagnosed, statistics about Alzheimer’s, defines dementia, the theft of memory, stages of dementia. 35 $3.50

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Looks at the challenges of being a caregiver to someone with dementia, resources that helped him, dealing with hard truths in that those diagnosed will never get better, gives plans strategies … 48 $4.80

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Talks about the process of losing Pat as Dementia took more of a hold on her, Discusses the Barrier (the point of physically and emotionallty exhaustion for caregivers), 19 $1.90

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final thoughts about the power of love 7 $0.70