ABOUT GERDA

When I turned 61 in 2011, I was diagnosed with cerebral microvascular disease, a precursor of dementia. I retired from my job as the associate director of Gender Studies at the University of Utah. Since I have always processed my life stages by writing about them, I started keeping a journal about the effect of my brain’s unraveling on my identity. Five years later, I completed a book-length memoir focussed on my dementia, Memory\’s Last Breath: Field Notes on my Dementia (Hachette Books, 2017). But dementia does not hold still. Like anyone with a degenerative brain disease, I continue to dement every day, never done until I die. Every time my brain suffers an additional insult, I have less brain power to puzzle out my remaining \”self.\” There will come a time when I don\’t care or don\’t know who I am. Until then, though, I hope to maintain this website with the help of my saintly and tech-savvy husband, Peter.