FROM KENOSIS PUBLISHING AND AUTHOR WILLEM O’REILLY
COMES AN INTIMATE STORY OF LOVE AND A STIRRING TALE FOR OUR TIMES
What Do I Do Now? A Caregiver’s Journey with Alzheimer’s,
a book of 100 essays by Willem O’Reilly
Coming to Amazon.com, and more
“Our vision is to reset the caregiving conversation, ” says the website for Leeza’s Care Connection, an organization dedicated to those who care for loved ones with Alzheimer’s disease. Author and caregiver Willem O’Reilly has done this and more. A guest blogger on Leeza’s site in 2013, with his piece An Open Letter to Men Who Are Caregivers, Willem has since published many more entries on his own blog at willemor917writer.com. Accompanying the stories are vivid images chronicling life with wife Molly. He is also a gifted photographer.
With the release of What Do I Do Now? A Caregiver’s Journey with Alzheimer’s, a book of 100 essays, Willem offers us an intimate portrait of a life he never imagined and a journey that brought him to where he is today. Watch for What Do I Do Now? on Amazon.com.
“What Do I Do Now is an extraordinary book that should be very widely read.”
(Alicia Ostriker, author of The Book of Seventy)
Please join us for these readings, hosted by Jamie O’Reilly
Tuesday, Oct 13 6:00 – 8:00 PM
Willem O’Reilly Reading from
What Do I Do Now: A Caregiver’s Journey with Alzheimer’s
Where: Cup & Spoon at 2415 W. North Ave Chicago
6 PM reception, 7 PM reading
For information call 773.203.7661; Email: roots@jamieoreilly.com
A collaboration between Cup & Spoon and DreamBox Gallery.
Reservations strongly encouraged. Books will ordered.
Saturday, Oct 17 at 8 PM
Readings at the Hearth with Willem O’Reilly
What Do I Do Now: A Caregiver’s Journey with Alzheimer’s
Where: Jamie O’Reilly’s new East Rogers Park Apt.
6441 N Wayne Apt 2, Chicago, IL 60626 (Private residence).
Reservations 773.203.7661; Email: roots@jamieoreilly.com
About this book
Willem and Molly were married on February 10, 1984. Molly was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s Disease in 2007. What Do I Do Now? A Caregiver’s Journey with Alzheimer’s is a memoir in the form of 100 essays and anecdotes. The book tracks the author’s emotional, psychological, and spiritual ups and downs watching his wife’s cognitive mind disappear. It is an inspirational guide to coping with loss and growing stronger through the experience. The book articulates issues that are often difficult to express or considered embarrassing, such as the end of sex, incontinence, and behavioral problems. It includes material derived from Twelve Step programs, A Course in Miracles, and Buddhist meditation practice. The storyline follows the patient and caregiver from diagnosis to placement in a memory-care facility to a near-death crisis and beyond. Where the bestselling novel and movie Still Alice told the story of Alzheimer’s from inside the patient, this book tells it from the point of view of the spouse/caregiver.
Testimonial Alicia Ostriker, author of The Book of Seventy
What Do I Do Now is an extraordinary book that should be very widely read. Anyone, young or old, may be confronted with the devastating experience of Alzheimer’s. And here is an account by a loving husband caring for a brilliant and loving wife as she spirals downward. But Willem O’Reilly is not just loving, he is open–about everything from Mollie’s sad and frightening symptoms, to his own loneliness, terror and exhaustion, his evolving coping strategies, his anger at God, his ongoing tenderness through it all–and much more. Although Willem O’Reilly is not an angel, he writes like one. I read this powerful and compassionate book with profound admiration and gratitude for its truthfulness.
About Willem
Willem O’Reilly is a freelance writer based in Colorado. He has previously been a university professor, a grant writer, a fundraising executive, an academic planner, a real estate broker, and a diversity trainer. Dr. O’Reilly’s book What Do I Do Now? A Caregiver’s Journey with Alzheimer’s will be published this month. Willem and his wife Molly adopted three children from the Philippines: Mae 35 who lives in Union Beach, NJ, Reynor 33 who lives in Nathrop, CO, and Dan John 32 who lives in Lafayette, CO.
More Willem on BLOGS
“Yesterday, I heard a piece of music on the Pandora at the facility. I said to Molly, “We heard that in Paris, in France, at a place called the Madeleine.” It was new for me to speak the memory as though she could still understand and it would mean something to her. It felt right to say out loud to her that we had shared something beautiful together.” Touching and Feeling Willem O’Reilly http://willemor917writer.com/2015/05/05/touchingandfeeling/
(More BLOGS)
“I have come to realize that caregiving requires some manly virtues: strength, courage, loyalty. It also, of course, requires some traditionally feminine virtues: sensitivity, compassion, self-sacrifice.” An Open Letter to Men Who Are Caregivers Leeza’s Care Connection http://www.leezascareconnection.org/uncategorized/an-open-letter-to-men-who -are-caregivers/
“My wife Molly was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2007. The disease has progressed to where she is now in the late stage. At one point she was much weakened by a series of strokes. Strokes as a symptom of Alzheimer’s are relatively rare: her doctor said they occur in about 15% of Alzheimer’s cases.”
How To Cope When Really Bad Things Happen Caregiving Cafe http://www.caregivingcafe.com/blog/
Contact: Willem T. O’Reilly, Ph.D.
255 Strathmore Lane #212, Lafayette, CO 80026
(303) 736-8609 (303) 859-0464
E: willemor917@gmail.com
https://www.facebook.com/willemor917?ref=tn_tnmn
http://www.linkedin.com/pub/willem-o-reilly/64/2a/71/
