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3 comments about Dementia: the LOSS . . . the LOVE . . . the LAUGHTER.

1. It was good to read to a book about dementia from a writer who knows first hand what it's like to take care of someone with dementia. It was very informative and funny in places. I am taking care of my mother who has dementia and have found the book to be quite helpful. I recomend this book to anyone who is going through the journey of dementia with a loved one.
   Marilyn



2. Three years ago my husband and I moved in to take care of his 91 year old mother.
   Now at 94 she is in mid term dementia. After one night when she was having difficulty with sleeping and staying in bed,I began to wonder what we were in for.
   I went on the Internet to see what I could find out about Dementia and what to expect. While searching I found a book written by Sunny Vogler. Her mom had dementia. The book was about her experiences. I sent for the book.
   When I began reading I could not put the book down. She brought to life what we would be walking into. Her sense of humor throughout the whole of the book gave us both hope we, could do this. I learned to expect the crazy visits from imaginary friends.
   The first night my mother-in-law had a lady in her bed trying to steal her walker, I could hear Sunny and remember how she handled these times. I did not have to panic. I could relax and know this is just the beginning.
   Sunny brought the truth of how to walk one day at a time. Enjoy the moments while you can. Don't wait until the end to start emptying out the house. Things we did not think about. Who to call when the day does arrive. She has all the names in order.
   One of the greatest things was to find her email address at the end of the book. When I go to the pits for a day she is there to anchorage ,and let us know we can do this. It is a must read for those of us who give up our life and move in with our aging parent. Her humor keeps us from getting so stressed about the day mom will no longer remember how to swallow her food or get up out of bed. We have learned from Sunny's book to just enjoy the moment we have.
   I have also learned even though I do not have her wonderful sense of humor, I being a serious person, I can trust each new day because I run to the book. Thank you Sunny.
   Leona Hennessee



3. Three years ago my husband and I moved in to take care of his 91 year old mother. Now at 94 she is in mid term dementia. After one night when she was having difficulty with sleeping and staying in bed,I began to wonder what we were in for.
   I went on the Internet to see what I could find out about Dementia and what to expect. While searching I found a book written by Sunny Vogler. Her mom had dementia. The book was about her experiences. I sent for the book.
   When I began reading I could not put the book down. She brought to life what we would be walking into. Her sense of humor throughout the whole of the book gave us both hope we, could do this. I learned to expect the crazy visits from imaginary friends.
   The first night my mother-in-law had a lady in her bed trying to steal her walker, I could hear Sunny and remember how she handled these times. I did not have to panic. I could relax and know this is just the beginning.
   Sunny brought the truth of how to walk one day at a time. Enjoy the moments while you can. Don't wait until the end to start emptying out the house. Things we did not think about. Who to call when the day does arrive. She has all the names in order.
   One of the greatest things was to find her email address at the end of the book. When I go to the pits for a day she is there to anchorage ,and let us know we can do this. It is a must read for those of us who give up our life and move in with our aging parent. Her humor keeps us from getting so stressed about the day mom will no longer remember how to swallow her food or get up out of bed. We have learned from Sunny's book to just enjoy the moment we have.
   I have also learned even though I do not have her wonderful sense of humor, I being a serious person, I can trust each new day because I run to the book. Thank you Sunny.

No comments about And the Sun Still Rises: A Mother's Inspiring Story of Living with ADD in the Family.

No comments about No Limits/Harry Cordellos, America's Legendary Blind Athlete, Leads the Way to New Horizons.

No comments about Growing Up With Anxiety Disorder.

5 comments about Sister Ignatia: Angel of Alcoholics Anonymous (A Campion Book).

1. This is a great history of the beginnings of A.A. and of the struggles of Dr. Bob to find a credible medical facility to help in the physical and spiritual recovery of alcoholics. Sr. Ignatia is one more non-alcoholic, like Dr. Silkworth and Fr. Ed Dowling, who serve at a pivotal point in the A.A. story. The author helps us see in Sr. Ignatia's own spiritual and personal biography how uniquely prepared and how providentially generous she was to be able to facilitate Dr. Bob's and A.A.'s program at St. Thomas Hospital in Akron, Ohio. I was intrigued with the seriousness that Sr. Ignatia, the doctors at St. Thomas and the Sisters of Charity in recognizing and attending to the underlying spiritual dimension of alcoholism. They were not the only ones to do this, as the book relates, but they helped bridge the moral/clinical gap that so many professionals and others, then as today, refuse(d) to accept.
   I found Sr. Ignatia's life journey very instructive. She was a very diligent teacher of music, professional, and in a sense driven. She had her Waterloo experience in a near nervous breakdown. The doctor asked her if she wanted to be a dead music teacher or a live nun? Thence, began her service as Admissions Director at St. Thomas. She had learned first hand that living life involved ups and downs and that a "mysterious-to-us-at-times" Providence, Power Greater Than Ourselves, God would lead when we were ready to surrender. Living in that awareness allows one to take risks for the good. The story of Sr. Ignatia, Dr. Bob and early A.A. in Akron and Cleveland is a story of risk and fulfillment.



2. For eighteen years now, I have been researching, analyzing, and pulling together all of the wellsprings of A.A. My area of focus and such expertise as I have concerns the original A.A. program in Akron which derived primarily from the United Christian Endeavor Movement of Dr. Bob's youth in St. Johnsbury, Vermont. The Akron program was summarized by Frank Amos in his report to John D. Rockefeller, Jr. in 1938; and its ingredients are a dead ringer for the techniques of the Salvation Army, the Rescue Missions, the principles and practices of Christian Endeavor, and several of the Oxford Group life-changing ideas. But early Akron A.A. was a unit unto itself. On the East Coast, Bill Wilson was formulating his ideas for recovery from the conversion thesis of Dr. Carl Jung, his own conversion at the altar at Calvary Rescue Mission, Ebby Thacher's prior conversion there, and Bill's study of the monumental coverage of such conversion experiences by Professor William James. There is much more, and it is discussed in my latest title The Conversion of Bill W. And later, after the Akron program had earned its spurs as a Christian Fellowship, Wilson was commissioned to write a text which was supposed to describe the original program and flesh it out with testimonials by those who participated. Instead, Bill drew on all the sources in the East, plus some newcomer ideas from Richard Peabody, Sam Shoemaker, Dr. Silkworth, and New Thought writers. Out of this came the Big Book, published in 1939, and very much based on the teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker of Calvary Episcopal Church. But Bill left out the rich Akron roots including the Bible, Quiet Time, Anne Smith's teaching and her journal, the Book of James, the Sermon on the Mount, and 1 Corinthians 13, and the devotionals like the Upper Room, the books AAs studied such as Drummond's The Greatest Thing in the World, plus what Bill was later to call the "doctrines and dogma" of the missions. The end results of the Wilson pen were a Big Book and Twelve Steps which neither resembled the Akron program nor the conversion picture painted so clearly for Bill by Jung, Hazard, Thacher, Silkworth, James, and even Shoemaker. Because of this jumble, I have spent most of my research time and 31 published titles covering the materials that were left out, are virtually unknown today, and yet produced the astonishing 75% success rate in Akron and the 93% rate in Cleveland.
   Meanwhile, author Mary Darrah had been working up her materials on Sister Ignatia of St. Thomas Hospital in Akron. For me, the material seemed at first to be irrelevant to my work on the earliest A.A. But, from the beginning, I noticed the very important pieces of Akron history that Darrah had unearthed and placed in the Ignatia book. I appreciate them even more today. These included: (1) Specific mention of Anne Smith's Journal and its relevance to the Twelve Steps later penned by Wilson. (2) Her delightful phrase that Anne Smith served God and Scripture daily to those who supped at the Smith home each morning. (3) Her highlighting of the close relationship between Ignatia and Dr. Bob's wife Anne. (4) Her providing Ignatia's materials on hospitalization and recovery. While Darrah's history pertained to the period which began after the Big Book was published in 1939 (though Mary tries to make it otherwise), she seemed to grasp the importance of the all-but-forgotten history of Akron A.A. itself. She overrates Ignatia's part in the "founding," but she brings to light one of the major factors that branched forward in Akron during Bill's twelve or so years of major depression. For, in post-big book days, while Bill was suffering from immobilizing depression, it was the work of Clarence Snyder in Cleveland, Dr. Bob and Anne and Ignatia in Akron, Richmond Walker's writings, Father Pfau's writings, Ed Webster's writings, and the materials from local groups that changed the face of A.A. yet allowed it continued growth. By all accounts, Ignatia's contributions in this period were enormous. And I believe that if one looks at the very unusual AA of Akron pamphlets that were written by Evan W., commissioned by Dr. Bob, and circulated from the 1940's to this day, you can see that there was a hearty ember of Bible, Christianity, and devotional practices that was fanned and kept glowing during New York's dark years. And if you look at the original Akron program (1935-1938), the sources of that program, the surviving details as outlined in DR. BOB and The Good Oldtimers, the program at St. Thomas Hospital as spelled out by Darrah, and the Akron pamphlets, you can see a deeply religious foundation in the A.A. program which no one seemed to understand any better than Sister Ignatia. My recommendation? Look at A.A. from a chronological standpoint--not the tired and erroneous timelines still being circulated. Look at the Akron beginnings in Vermont and the program that emerged and produced the pioneer 40 in Akron and their cures. Look then at the beginnings in the East Coast and the original emphasis by Bill on conversion--sparked probably by his own grandfather Willie's conversion and healing of alcoholism. Then look at the Big Book program and Twelve Steps that Bill fashioned in 1938 and 1939 largely from the Oxford Group teachings of Rev. Sam Shoemaker. At that point, you have three major legs of our history. Then came Bill's long devastating depression, the new ideas and writings that sprang into being, coupled with Clarence Snyder's consistent championing of the Big Book, the Steps, the Bible, and the Four Absolutes and Ignatia's priceless work with beginners that did not diminish or detract from the Christian principles and Bible roots and did produce worthy results. The Darrah book is very valuable if one wishes to see the biography of A.A. from 1934 through 1955 when major and substantially different changes were placed in cement with A.A. Comes of Age, Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions, and the St. Louis Convention. Good for Mary. See a summary of the foregoing picture, including Darrah's findings, Ignatia's role, the St. Thomas story, and the important Akron picture in the 1940's in my title Real Twelve Step Fellowship History. Dick B.



3. Mary Darrah deserves credit for tackling the biography of a tremendously overlooked personality from AA's past. The story of the little Nun is covered in detail. Darrah does a good job of getting the facts down.
   
   However, this book suffers from stilted language and poor organization. The narrative conveys no passion or excitment, something I'm sure the writer must have possesed in order to cover such an obscure figure as Sister Ignatia. The chapters are not organizaed well and do not flow evenly into each other.
   IT almost has the feel of one of those bad textbooks you had in high school.
   
   However, it's still worth laying out the money for this book if you're desiring a better understanding of AA history.



4. Mary Darrah's book on Sr. Ignatia is an excellent historical document for all to read whether or not they are in recovery from alcohol or other drugs. This book is an accurate historical account of both the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous as well as the life of a compassionate yet tough woman.

   This book is a must read for anyone interested in the truth about AA history. It is interesting, informative and enlightening.

   Mitchell K. (Author of HOW IT WORKED, The Story of Clarence H. Snyder and the Early Days of Alcoholics Anonymous in Cleveland, Ohio)




5. In the early days of Alcoholics Anonymous, the recovery rate was about seventy five per cent. Today, the recovery rate is less than one per cent. In the early days of AA, 1935 to 1945, the founders of AA (Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob Smith and Sister Ignatia) operated under the concept that alcoholism was the indication of a spiritual illness. You first took away the alcohol, let the patient go through the withdrawal, and then they trained the alcoholic to be a spiritual person, both by learning to pray, (any religion would do) and then to pass your victory on to other suffering alcoholics. As AA grew, it began to be accepted in government run hospitals. And anything to do with the government has to have nothing to do with religion. So they began to treat alcoholics with psychiatry and downplayed the religious angle, hence the much lower recovery rate. Groups that use religion to treat alcoholics, like Teen Challenge, have an 80% recovery rate. When Sister Ignatia was helping to steer the recovery boat, along with Bill Wilson, Dr. Bob and the assent to Grace, recovery from alcoholism was possible for the first time on this planet. The other influence working against AA's religious methods was the birth, in the late 50's, of political correctness which fears surrender to religion (of ALL kinds) Reading this book about Sr. Ignatia has strenghthened my spirituality in AA. I just celebrated fourteen years sober.

No comments about Stevie, Cancer, Angels and Grandpa.

1 comments about Heirlooms.

1. Sharon P. Baumgold was actively engaged in pursuing her award winning career as an educator, when in 1995 she was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (A.L.S.), also known as "Lou Gehrig's Disease". In response to this death sentence, she wrote: "I have plenty to say, and now I know that I must hurry to write it. I have seen things that no one else has, true of us all, but not many of us get a curtain call. So, this must be my reward. Every significant feeling I've ever had, event I've experienced, or decision I've made has been documented in a letter to someone. That is probably because I have spent my life seeking validation for every tear, turn, and whim, from age five to age almost fifty. I have written in order to think, a pattern in which I can now find solace."

   Heirlooms is about family legacies. The sixteen chapters of part one include photographs of the heirlooms and describe the role of cherished objects in Sharon's family history, revealing the souls of those heirlooms and the values that influenced her life. These principles have served as a lifeline during her final four years during which she faced the challenges of a hereditary illness on its path of increasing paralysis to death. From the Introduction to Part One: "It has been four years since my diagnosis and three since I left teaching. My life has been full. I tell people that I have been having a lot of fun and accomplishing quite a bit for a dead person. Bulbar onset A.L.S. patients usually die at the shorter end of the two to five year prognosis. I was never a gambler, but I have beaten the odds on survival." The final heirloom was not discovered until late 1995. And until that point, Sharon thought she knew everything there was to know about her family legacies. Symptoms had been creeping into her life without her recognizing them as such. When her father was stricken, she knew of no family history of his disease. But five years after his death, Sharon was diagnosed with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis ("Lou Gehrig's Disease"). In part two she narrates the strange early symptoms, the diagnostic process, and her struggle to remain teaching. Part two continues with a description of her life after leaving the classroom. Details of her physical decline are subordinate to those of rearranging priorities and meeting new challenges. Much of her story is told through letters that she wrote and some that she received. Four poems are integral parts of the context. Three are her own work. The other was written to her, and the author's has given permission to include it. In March, 1999 Sharon visited a local high school to "talk" about having A.L.S. The students sat quietly and attentively for an hour and asked sensitive questions. At no time did anyone look at her like she was a freak, a problem she had going out in public as the disease took its toll. "Teens are still the best people in my book", she said. Then in June, 1999, Sharon was the "guest author" for a class in a new college course at her alma mater. The instructor wanted to have her come tell her "story" about A.L.S. and her writing. So, she wrote a few pages of presentation to have read aloud for her, and then Sharon's used her voice synthesizer to answer questions. At the end, she said "I had a wonderful time", and it was these experiences that were the motivation she needed to write Part Two, The Final Heirloom: A.L.S.

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