The Theft of Memory

Dear Mr. Kozol, I heard part of your lecture on C-SPAN recently then immediately called my local library to get a copy of your book. I'm particularly interested in books from a personal perspective as my husband of almost 29 years quickly declines from Alzheimer's.

He was diagnosed right after Hurricane Sandy, by a neurologist who had a cancellation the day before Thanksgiving.

I belong to a small online writers' group and made the difficult decision to document our journey. I'm 62 and my husband is 76; the average age of the other writers is probably 30-40, so I often feel many of them cannot relate.

While I can read an entire book in a few hours, yours I'm taking my time with, suddenly crying halfway through page 13. The simple sentence that stopped me was, "He had a steadying hand."

I want to thank you for using your established writing skills to share your intimate experience with this elusive and devastating disease that many people are afraid to even say the word, as if someone with Alzheimer's can control what I believe is essentially a biological process.

As a society, we don't castigate children with leukemia nor any other illness that I can think of...and yet, I've been asked the most insensitive questions (usually in front of my husband) as well as people who believe "he will get better if_____."

Looking forward to the rest of the book, with one foot in the real world and one foot in his world.

Sincerely,
My real name

10:15 PM (1 hour ago)

to me
Thank you for sharing. Blessings to you.

Jonathan Kozol

277