New Every Day: Navigating Alzheimer’s with Grace and Compassion

New Every Day: Navigating Alzheimer’s with Grace and Compassion
By Dave Meurer

Alzheimer’s. It barges into your life, breaks your heart, bewilders your mind, disrupts your plans, impacts your finances, and consumes enormous amounts of time and energy. When someone you love has Alzheimer’s, you need more than just information on the disease–you need a break. You need a laugh. You need a friend by your side who knows exactly what you’re going through.

Award-winning humorist Dave M. Meurer is that friend. Packed with practical information–like how to get the DMV to take away the car keys or how you shouldn’t insist on correcting your loved one’s misperceptions–and plenty of true stories from his own experiences navigating life with a loved one who suffers from Alzheimer’s, New Every Day offers hard-earned wisdom and even some badly needed comic relief for readers journeying down this difficult road. With compassion born of experience, Meurer helps caregivers develop the ability to relax, adapt, and even sometimes laugh again.

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After finishing this book, I couldn’t help but think “what a wonderful resource”. It’s evident from the beginning that the author approaches the subject with a lot of compassion, as well as humor. I’ve had some experiencing within my church family, members suffering from dementia. I think it’s one of those things that most of us worry about as we age. Because we don’t want to be a burden on our family or friends. We don’t want to annoy them with the same question we’d asked a dozen times before, that same day…sometimes within a few minutes.

Recently, a friend mentioned someone close to her had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I mentioned this book, which she immediately took an interest in. I will be happily sharing this with her, as well as the family going through this. And while society tends to lose patience, I’d urge each and everyone that goes about on their daily routine to learn patience. It’s not something that comes easily, I know. And there are days that patience is low on the list. How scary and frustrating for those that are just starting to suffer the effects of dementia. They could use all the compassion, grace and help possible. I highly recommend New Every Day as a resource for families (and even friends) of individuals going through dementia. Dave Meurer does a brilliant job giving us a little bit of humor while at the same time noting the difficulties and challenges that come with the diagnosis. Dave offers information on Medicare vs Medicaid, assisted living vs nursing care, the importance of an advanced directive, or why experimenting on your relative with dementia isn’t a good thing and more. As I said, there is humor throughout.  I received a complimentary copy from Revell. The thoughts and honest opinions in this review are my own.