Iceberg in Paradise

Nancy Avery Dafoe is a writer and English educator. She is the author of Breaking Open the Box: A Guide for Creative Techniques to Improve Academic Writing and Generate Critical Thinking and Writing Creatively: A Guided Journal to Using Literary Devices. She lives in Homer, New York.

• List of IllustrationsForeword by Ralph HesseAcknowledgmentsA Note on the TitleIntroduction: After the Fall1. Uncertainty2. Why Now? Why My Family?3. Secrets4. Mistaken Identities5. Early Signs and Symptoms6. You Look Like Your Mother7. There’s a Tornado in My Head8. Helping the Doctor9. Icebergs in Paradise10. Managing at Home11. What Would She Have Chosen?12. Did You See The Notebook?13. What Not to Say14. Managing in a Nursing Home or Assisted Living Facility15. Collecting Memories16. Her Legacy17. ShadowsAppendix A: Turning to the WebAppendix B: Texts on the SubjectIndex of PoemsNotesAbout the Author

"Beautifully written, An Iceberg in Paradise expresses Nancy Avery Dafoe's very personal experience as a family member observing the slow yet relentless failing of her beloved mother. I loved Dafoe's honest way of writing about the pain, confusion, anger, frustration, and sorrow of her journey with her mother and her mother's 'passage.' This is a personal, very human memoir that anyone dealing with Alzheimer's in a parent or spouse would find helpful and supportive." — Alison Jacob, LCSW"I found this book particularly touching on many levels. As we baby boomers age and our parents are living longer in general, we all need information and to hear others' stories of their experiences with this as it could well affect many of us on a very personal level." — Mark Marshall, LCSW