The Unexpected Journey
Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path
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- $229.00
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- $229.00
Descripción editorial
INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
"A game changer for caregivers of loved ones with dementia.... This book will help millions of families, like hers, like yours, like mine, like everyone’s. It’s a book for our time.” —Maria Shriver
From Emma Heming Willis, wife of Bruce Willis, a deeply personal and richly compassionate supportive guide that helps caregivers care for themselves while they navigate a loved one's dementia.
AN OPEN FIELD PUBLICATION FROM MARIA SHRIVER
The day Emma Heming Willis’ husband, Bruce Willis, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), all they were given was a pamphlet and told to check back in a few months. With no hope or direction, Emma walked out of that doctor’s appointment frozen with fear, confusion and a sense that her world had just fallen apart.
In fact, it had. Bruce and Emma had their story written, their future mapped out. Yet all those dreams crumbled with that diagnosis, and Emma felt alone and more isolated than ever. How would she care for her husband while parenting their young daughters?
At that devastating time, Emma just wanted someone who'd been through it to tell her, “This feels terrible right now. Your life is in shambles. But it’s going to be okay. Here are some things to think about and put in place so you cannot just survive but thrive.”
With The Unexpected Journey, Emma has written the book she wishes she’d been handed on the day of Bruce’s diagnosis: a supportive guide to navigating the complicated, heartbreaking, and transformative experience that is caregiving for your loved one. Weaving her personal journey as a care partner with the latest research and insights from the world’s top dementia, caregiving, and integrative experts she offers the guidance and wisdom caregivers everywhere so desperately need to hear, including:
A diagnosis isn’t just a label, it’s a starting point. It helps you better understand your person’s behavior and respond with more clarity and compassion.Taking care of yourself is not optional; it's mandatory. It will make you a better care partner. It’s not selfish, it’s self-preserving.You don’t have a choice about being on the dementia caregiving journey. But you do have a choice in terms of how you approach it and reframe it.Caregivers are human so you aren’t always going to be patient and selfless. You have challenges and struggle with conflicting emotions and that’s okay.
Ultimately, The Unexpected Journey shows you how to care for yourself while doing one of the hardest, most heartbreaking jobs in the world. Because if you don’t take care of yourself, you are not going to be able to look after anyone else—especially your loved one with dementia.
For anyone caregiving for a loved one with any form of dementia, and even for those caregiving for other conditions, The Unexpected Journey shows that you are not alone. As Emma writes, “I know that no two caregiving journeys are the same, but we are connected by the same unchosen thread. It’s not an easy path for you, your loved one or your family. But I’m here to let you know that you are not alone, and, in time, you will find your footing, and a way forward."
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Willis, cofounder of Make Time Wellness and wife of actor Bruce Willis, details in her compassionate debut how caregivers can better care for themselves. After 13 years of marriage, Willis began to notice that her husband was mentally and physically deteriorating. He struggled to communicate, make plans, and handle their finances, and was eventually diagnosed with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in 2022. Drawing from her experience coming to grips with her husband's disease, she urges caregivers to thoroughly educate themselves on a loved one's condition (but direct friends and family to online resources to avoid continually reexplaining it to them); find community with other caregivers; and carve out time for activities that are "just for you" (before she was comfortable leaving her husband for extended periods of time, the author found solace gardening in the backyard). While suggestions for exercising, getting enough sleep, and eating right won't be new to readers, Willis constructs a candid and convincing case that staying physically and emotionally healthy is essential to looking after someone else (she soberingly notes that 30% of caregivers die before the loved one they're caring for, and at a rate that's 63% higher than other people of the same age). Admirably vulnerable and openhearted, this will be a balm for readers grappling with a loved one's recent diagnosis.
