Stage Seven by Ruth Stevens

Note: I am not a paid reviewer, and I have purchased this title to read for my personal enjoyment.

Barbara and Jack are the respective primary family support for Barbara’s mother and Jack’s wife at a residential Alzheimer treatment facility. Barbara and Jack bond over their shared burdens, and flashbacks movingly portray how each of them came to terms with the harshness of their loved one’s declining mental faculties. This story focuses on Barbara’s and Jack’s roles as caregivers and how they come to terms with the heartache of Alzheimer’s toll on their loved one, as well as unequal family contributions towards the patient, communications with the greater family group, and a sense of loyalty to a person who is now very different than the one who had been in their lives. This is an important book for all of us since, as brain and behavior expert Dr. Richard Restak says: “In America today, anyone over 50 lives in dread of the big A.” Ms. Stevens did a great job giving depth to Barbara’s and Jack’s various emotions—loss, loneliness, uncertainty, guilt—as the disease inevitably progressed and each of them tried to face a new reality without their loved one.