Upcoming Event: John Thorndike

How would you respond to a parent's dwindling memory and ability to take care of themselves? Alzheimer's disease is a tragic reality of what can happen in our elder years and it affects over five million Americans. Author John Thorndike writes about his father's struggle with the disease, and his experiences of looking after him in his new book, The Last of His Mind.

When John's father becomes diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, his only wish is to continue to reside in his Cape Cod home. Thorndike leaves his life in Ohio to return to his childhood home and take care of his father. At the end, when his father's heart stops beating, John's hand is on his chest, and a story of painful decline has become a portrait of deep family ties, care giving, and love. This memoir of dementia that strips his father of language, memory and self-awareness, is a bittersweet account of a son's final year with his father, and a candid portrait of an implacable disease.

Join John Thorndike as he recalls his experience, and signs copies of The Last of His Mind (Swallow Press, $24.95) on Monday, March 29, 2010, at 7:30pm at Boulder Book Store, 1107 Pearl Street, Boulder, CO, 80302.