Book Summary:
A Place in Time tells the personal stories of normal people--grandchildren, children, and spouses--who have chosen to care for their aging and fragile relations. In a style reminiscent of Studs Terkel's, Tom Koch has collected these extraordinary narratives on the front lines of the battle for senior care. From Toronto, Canada, to Honolulu, Hawaii, he has met with, listened to, and recorded the experiences of an extraordinary group of people who care for ailing senior relatives at home. This is what it is like, they say, to be with and to love another who is simultaneously old and ill. Like Oliver Sacks, the author then uses his collection to ask: What can we learn from the experiences of others? What can these frank and intimate stories teach us all? At a time when elder care is an increasingly important political and social issue, his conclusions are startling, radical, and important. These stories insist that, contrary to popular opinion, caregiving is not so much a debilitating and hateful task as it is the inevitable result of looking at the world in a way that is healthy and sane. "These are tales of wellness," the author argues, "not of despair. They are descriptions of a way of being in the world which is healthy, powerful, natural and good." A Place in Time provides vital and practical information for anyone considering physically caring for another. It will be of critical importance to gerontologists, ethicists, those in the medical and nursing professions, and everyone interested in family issues, the problems of the elderly, and caregiving. |