My Life With Dementia
I have early-onset dementia — diagnosed at 61. Thanks to those who love me, I’ve lived joyously for almost a decade with the d-word. I call my dementia “Doña Quixote.” In my blog, book, and videos, I tell tales about her: the good, the mad, and the fugly.
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A RadioWest “Staff Pick”: short film series about Gerda and her family’s life with dementia
Featured photo: The RadioWest team, Elaine Clark, Kelsie Moore, Doug Fabrizio, Benjamin Bombard RadioWest and I go way back. In 2001, Doug Fabrizio interviewed me on his then brand-new “intelligent” show about my book of short stories that dealt with my family’s emigration from South Africa to Utah. Doug had thoroughly read my book (no, […]
Doña Quixote gets a makeover
Featured image: Cosmopolitan: skeleton makeup tutorial In August 2016, I signed the contract that granted Hachette Books the rights to publish Memory’s Last Breath: Field Notes on my Dementia. It came out in June 2017. During the writing of my book, I created a character, Doña Quixote, to represent my demented alter ego. On her […]
Peter and Gerda at work and play in San Antonio
Last Saturday, June 15th, Peter and I participated in the “Building Partnerships for Geriatric Care: Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Symposium” in San Antonio. The main organizer of the conference—and the person who invited me to speak— was Carole White, a professor in Nursing at the University of Texas at San Antonio. Her research focus is to […]