Ilana Rowe has written a warm, inspiring, loving and informative book about the journey of caregiving her husband through his time with Alzheimer’s. She shares her ordeal with sweetness as she navigates the challenging waters of the phases of dealing with dementia of a beloved with all the pains and blessings. This memoir paints an absorbing picture with the brush of caring and the colors of intimacy and candor.
Martin Lowenthal
- Author of Buddha and the Art of Intimacy and To Bless in Challenging Times
This beautiful memoir is a tale of healing in the face of loss. It reveals both the hardships of caregiving a loved one with Alzheimer’s, as well as the transformative capacity that comes when suffering becomes a master teacher. Dr Rowe shares her long and painful journey with insight and compassion. Her lightness of being and lyrical voice offers readers a blessing way as they grapple with the pain and disorientation that accompanies this terrible disease. Sacred Stories is a remarkable gift that is sure to offer solace and inspiration, even in our darkest hours.
-Marilyn Schlitz, PhD
- Author of Death Makes Life Possible and Living Deeply: The Art and Science of Transformation
Sacred Stories is a deep and lovely chronicle of the long ending of a marriage due to Alzheimer ’s disease. With writing that allows the reader to enter the consciousness of caregiving, the book exudes wisdom, love, forgiveness, grit and the mystery of life and death. This book would be welcome reading for anyone who wants to experience love made manifest.
Frederic Luskin, Ph.D.
Author of Forgive for Good; Forgive for Love Director of Stanford Forgiveness Projects
Sacred Stories is a tender book that chronicles a loving spouse’s journey through Alzheimer’s. Ilana Rowe thinks aloud as she makes difficult decisions and finds ways to care for herself and her loved one that emerged during challenging times. I highly recommend this inspiring book to any spouse or family member who is caregiving a person with dementia. This book will speak to so many people and provide solace, solutions, and serenity. Sacred Stories will help so many gain a new perspective.Every page is filled with wonderful information and takeaways.
Andrea R. Nierenberg Author of Networking That Really Works.
Rowe gives the words and wisdom I wish I'd had while caring for a family member afflicted with Alzheimer's. This soulful memoir offers replicable approaches to the challenges and opportunities at each stage of the disease. Even while coining a coping phrase about her husband—"Hal on Alzheimer's"—Rowe teaches us how to enter into unconditional love. She maintains her health and sanity and shares how in all honesty. Her attention to having a full, healthy mourning process includes the power of memoir-writing. -
Rabbi Dr. Goldie Milgram, MSW
Author of Meaning & Mitzvah; Mitzvah Stories, and Mitzvah Cards
Ilana takes us on a journey of love, a journey of life as a creative transformative process. We are there with her and Hal, as she accompanies him on his long journey with Alzheimer’s. We cry and grieve with them,struggle and move forward with them,smile and laugh with them, sing and dance with them. We, too, stumble and learn with them. We are there as she gathers colors, stares at her blank canvas, then lets dreams, intuition, and instinct express as her heart cracks open—and colors, forms, shapes, textures, and words spill on to her canvas and the pages of this book.
Kaleo Ching, MA, co-author with Elise Diriam Ching of The Creative Art of Living, Dying, and Renewal with Chi and Creativity.
