THE GAP BETWEEN

A Houston lawyer blends memoir and self-help in a guide to caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease.

In her first book, Moreland offers a realistic but reassuring message for people who are caring for parents or others with Alzheimer’s: The effort involves serious challenges, but “if you genuinely try your best, you should feel proud.” Aiming to help, she offers basic medical facts and coping strategies that draw on her experience of raising two Gen Z sons as a single mother while caring for a much-loved writer mother who died in 2020 after a decade with the disease. Moreland covers topics such as recognizing the warning signs of Alzheimer’s, communicating and traveling with someone who has it, making sure you have the needed legal documents, and finding end-of-life care. Some of her advice will be familiar to people who’ve read other books on the disease (“Tell people how to help you”; “Rest is important”). But Moreland’s personal stories add a unique and valuable dimension—especially her harrowing account of what happened after her mother tested positive for Covid-19 while in a nursing home, grew worse and required hospitalization, and the home then wouldn’t let her return until she’d tested negative for 14 days. Moreland’s mother, Jane P. Moreland, was a gifted poet, and her fine poems, interspersed throughout the text, further distinguish the book.

A helpful book of common-sense guidance for people caring for someone with Alzheimer’s.