"Do I Know You": Living Through the End of a Parent's Life

Moskowitz, Bette, Ann; Bett Ann Moskowitz (Author)

ISBN 10: 1568362102 / ISBN 13: 9781568362106

Published by Kodansha International Ltd., New York, Tokyo, London, 1998

About this Item

184 pp. Flawless book and dj.

Seller Inventory # 3iFd0023

Bibliographic Details

• Title: "Do I Know You": Living Through the End of a Parent's Life
• Publisher: Kodansha International Ltd., New York, Tokyo, London
• Publication Date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1568362102
• ISBN 13: 9781568362106
• Binding: Hardcover
• Illustrator: Julie Metz (Cover Design), Ron Rovtar/Photonica (Cover Photo)
• Condition: Like New
• Dust Jacket Condition: Like New
• Seller catalogs:
  • Psychology, Psychiatry, Psychotherapy
  • Social Studies & Sciences, Sociology, Social Work
  • Geriatrics

About this title

Synopsis

A daughter tells the story of a her mother's slide into advanced senility, presenting a portrait of the problems of aging and the difficult choices sometimes faced by adult children

Reviews

Moskowitz and her sister, Norma, suspect that their 87-year-old mother is steadily becoming less able to take care of herself. Beyond her increasing forgetfulness, her once-spotless apartment needs a good cleaning and she is not eating. Moskowitz and Norma hope it's a passing phase, a mental fog that will lift. But doctors confirm the worst: their mother is in the early stages of senile dementia. As her confusion increases, their mother becomes contentious, even hostile. After much anguish, the sisters put Mom in the last place she wants to be, a nursing home. Their guilt is substantial, but their choices are limited by their mother's quickly deteriorating condition. Through it all, though, their mother is able to keep her dignity, much to Moskowitz's relief. A touching and honest look at one woman's psychological decline and the pain that decline causes her children. Brian McCombie