"Will our wounds heal after we have collided with one another in certain atmospheric conditions? Will the warm breezes of life return?"
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And Still Will I Trust Him II by Leonie Serediuk Trafford Publishing
book review by John E. Roper
All of us lose things. Often they are small, relatively unimportant items like an article of clothing or a piece of mail. At other times they can hold great sentimental value such as a wedding ring or a family keepsake. But what would it be like to gradually lose all of the intangible things that help define who we are: our memories, our cognitive functions, our own identities? For sufferers from Alzheimer's disease this level of loss is a reality, and their agony extends to friends and family members who have been left mentally behind. The author of this memoir is one of those living in this pain as she accompanies her husband through his illness. Yet she calls their struggle a "royal journey" since she senses the presence of Christ's love and guidance along their way.
Serediuk is no stranger to personal tragedy. Her granddaughter Tara, a microcephalic child whose brain never developed properly, was the subject of her first book. The beginning of the current volume catches the reader up on Tara's story since the last book was published before her death. However, after pointing out a parallel between Tara's suffering and her husband's, and offering some background information on the couple's early days, the bulk of the present work stems from the author's poignant diary entries of Gordon's decline and eventual residence in a special care center.
Serediuk candidly describes the physical, mental, and emotional challenges her entire family faces as Gordon slips deeper into the darkness. Yet despite the tragedy of the situation she manages to find moments of spiritual insight and joy. Painful yet positive, her book offers an insider's view on one of the world's most heartbreaking diseases.