Marry Me Stop

Miriam was never one to decline an adventure. Even at the age of seventy-eight and suffering from dementia, when asked if she would like to join her daughter’s family at their foreign service post in Bangladesh, she was still up for the challenge.

In Marry Me Stop, author Regina Landor honors her mother’s life with a biography in two parts: “Then” and “Now.”

The first part tells of how Miriam grew up during the Depression in a home so awful that, out of ten children, she was the only one who didn’t run away. Yet, she went on to live a full life, sailing across the ocean on her own and working in Europe before marrying and raising three children in the United States.

The second part chronicles Miriam’s slide into mental illness, her experiences in a series of retirement homes, and finally, her time in Bangladesh—a land that honors the elderly.

Regina describes the raw realities of caring for someone with dementia, capturing the challenges, frustration, and embarrassment as well as the humor and gratitude that her family has felt for the wonderful opportunity to be present with Miriam in her final stage of life.

Regina Landor writes a travel blog. Marry Me Stop is her second book, following Forever Traveling Home, her book about life as a family in the foreign service, and she's had stories published in online and travel magazines.

Landor currently lives in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with her US diplomat husband, her two boys, and her eighty-one-year-old mother. She enjoys walking in the rain during the monsoon season and seeing the occasional elephant in a traffic jam.