Hi Tom,
It is a compelling book dealing with a difficult subject matter but in a wonderfully uplifting way. I liked it very much. I was not sure I would like it in the beginning, but it flowed along in such a way as to capture the reader. I could not look at it as fiction. It seemed real with difficult decisions and challenges faced by any family in the same situation.
You ask yourself along the way what would you do, yet so many families are faced with these decisions every day. You thank God that is it not you either as the patient or the spouse or kids. Thank you for an introduction to a difficult topic.
The escape into the fantasy world was a reprieve for the reader as well. The reader looked forward to it. The day-to-day home activities were right in your face but tastefully done.
You are a great writer. I think it is a shame the generations after us are not reading books.
I wish everyone dealing with anything like this or their families or their friends would know your book exists. It would help them cope with their situation.
Thank you!
Kenda
My response to Kenda:
I have so looked forward to your reaction to “Mistaken Identity”. Your experienced reader’s perspective is so very important to me. Thank you for your kind and encouraging words.
I believe you experienced the book in the way I had intended the reader to experience it.
As you know, it was intended for a specific audience – caregivers of Alzheimer’s victims and Alzheimer’s victims. It was designed to place them (the reader) into identifying with the main character, who found himself in the worst possible situation.
Wolf had to overcome his emotions and deal with the situation. He does so realizing so many things:
(a) His totally reliance on others to care for him 24/7;
(b) Mistaken for someone else – who’s worse off than himself, he died;
(c) Communication with anybody by whatever means possible, his life depends on it;
(d) An escape, because reality was too much to deal with day in and day out, but an escape that not only liberated him, but gave him other points of view – a brain trust with personalities, knowledge and abilities different from his – to bounce off ideas and help solve problems, because the one thing for sure he had no shortage of was problems;
(e) Knowledge of the fate of paraplegics (LIS) - he must compress the entire second half of his life into 3 to 5 years as does the Alzheimer’s victim, except the Alzheimer’s victim’s brain is being systematically destroyed thereby making it exceedingly difficult to communicate and interact successfully with others.
“Mistaken Identity” is a journey with a positive roadmap by which to navigate the second half of life – (a) new communications models to experience and use; (b) experiencing characters with real life problems, overwhelming problems that through love and caring manage and through caring relationships each character reveals they are more – more capable, more complex, more resilient, and through nurturing one another their true identity emerges.
The book is paced for sharing with Alzheimer’s victims – my aunt, for whom I identified as my soulmate my entire life, died from Alzheimer’s disease March 24, 2019, she was 93. I wrote “Mistaken Identity” for her. I read a chapter to her each time I visited her. I read it twice through before she died. She loved being in the enchanted forest. I told her she did not have to leave the enchanted forest, I would come into the enchanted forest with her and be with her there. Her last words to me before she went into a coma and died were, “88 Tom 88”.
Other caregivers that attended my aunt told me my visits uplifted my aunt, it was the height of her day, it calmed her and she became easier to care for and interact with.
The pace of life in the enchanted forest is specifically designed to slow the reader down and take the reader deeper into an enchanted world of reflection and interaction with the one being read to. Unfortunately, many caregivers don’t understand that you must approach and care for Alzheimer’s victims in a slower pace and remain always positive.
“Mistaken Identity” was designed as the longest fairytale anyone is likely to ever read for the purpose of having enough material and variety to share with the Alzheimer’s victim – likely the last book they will ever had read to them. I wanted it to also be a book the caregivers/family members could view and remember as “classic literature” an adventure tale well worth the journey.
I can’t thank you enough for taking the journey. Feel free to share more… I will do my best to share my thinking, etc.
All the best,
Tom
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