I know about super smart people and dementia. My husband, Ken, wasn't a professor but he went to Harvard graduate school (for a time) and, like Alice, he was brilliant.
Also like Alice, he tried to outsmart his doctors, along with the rest of us, into believing he was fine. We used to sit in the car before a doctor's appointment so he could practice answering the questions he knew he'd be asked: Who's the president? What's today's date? Both Ken and Alice got the answers right for a time but you can't outsmart dementia forever.
Like Alice, Ken's brain stumbled a long time before he acknowledged the problem. Ten years before he died and five years before he had serious symptoms he got lost going to the cleaners and ended up in the next town.
Alice, of course, has a terrible time coming to grips with her situation. As does her brilliant family. But, at one point, she does come to grips with what's really important to her - and it surprises her.
Accepting the fact that she did indeed have Alzheimer's,...what did she want?
She wanted to hold her daughter's baby. She wanted to see her son fall in love. She wanted to be with her husband. She wanted to read every book she could while she could still read.
Nowhere on the list was there anything about linguistics, teaching or Harvard.
I could so totally relate to this. I know my time as a healthy in mind and body older woman is limited - just because I'm older. And my priorities have drastically changed.
"Still Alice" is a page turner. Once you start reading you won't be able to put it down...either!
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