Walking My Momma Home: Finding Love, Grace, and Acceptance Through the Labyrinth of Dementia - Paperback

by Kathy Flora (Author)

You are NOT Alone Over 15.7 million people today are caring for a loved one with dementia.As caregivers, it's easy for us to feel isolated. If you're weary of the heartache and losses you both suffer, of the restless nights and chaotic days, then you know that our frustrations, helplessness, and fear can drive us to our knees. Dementia is cruel.But the caregiving journey that we are on also offers unexpected, uplifting gifts: -profound personal insight-explosive spiritual growth-discovery of our deepest selfAll of these gifts are buried, to be uncovered in the experience of walking alongside.Caregiving is tough, yet it can open a channel to accessible grace that will change your life forever.Walking My Momma Home is a memoir of my mom and me. It's about love, hope, uncertainty, role reversal, courage and the raw humanity in Mom's experience of losing herself to the disease. It's about the hard decisions, conflicts, the relationship balancing and personal soul-stretching my caregiving required. It's our story of surprising joy and laughter, of tears and terrors, of opening hearts and deep, emotional healing. Filled with stories, reflection, insightful questions, and invaluable resources, Walking My Momma Home helps you reflect on and process your own journey through the raw experience of fellow travelers walking dementia's labyrinth.PRAISE FOR WALKING MY MOMMA HOME: "There are truly no words for how deeply this book resonated with me. There were so many days while reading it that the bravery and authenticity Kathy showed by sharing her journey helped me face the walk I'm currently on with my parents. I laughed. I cried. And then I cried some more, but I cried tears of comfort and understanding. This book is the ultimate story of the cycle of life - the journey home - that each of us is on, and it's full of light, love, and laughter along with all the tears. Thank you, Kathy, for writing such a powerful, heartfelt book and for sharing your journey and your mom's journey with the world. I'm forever grateful." --- D. D. Scott, International Bestselling AuthorABOUT THE AUTHOR: Kathy Flora is a Nationally Certified Career Counselor and Master Career Coach. She began this work at Purdue University in College Placement. Through successive job changes, she's worked as a consultant, a business executive, organization development and job search trainer, an elected State Representative in New Hampshire, an HR representative at the Congressional Research Service of the Library of Congress, and finally as a leadership program manager in an Intelligence Community agency in the federal service in Washington D. C. and Tampa, Florida.Her life's passion has been helping others find theirs. She has been a Hospice volunteer, is a leadership and HR blogger for A. J. O'Connor Associates, a volunteer career coach and speaker for CancerandCareers.org, and she delights in spending time helping out at Selah Vie, the local thrift store of Selah Freedom, a national not-for profit organization that fights Human Trafficking on the Suncoast and across the country.She is a mom, a grandma, a daughter, a sister, a friend and Jim's loving wife, a political junkie, public speaker, novice hiker, and an avid cyclist. She and Jim live in Bradenton, FL, with an inspiring view of the sunsets over the marsh along the Manatee River in a neighborhood with plenty of walking trails and biking paths. Those paths are where she finds her bliss nearly every morning before starting the rest of her day.This is her first book, and it was a surprise even to her since she sat down to write on an entirely different topic. But as you may have noticed, God had other plans.