For the Millions of Americans Caring for Someone With Alzheimer's, This Book Gives the Experience a Voice

CHICAGO - Rezul -- More than 11 million Americans are currently caring for someone living with Alzheimer's disease, and most of them are doing it without a roadmap, adequate language for what they're feeling, and the reassurance that someone else has been where they are. Suzy McNamara has lived that experience. The Silkworm, the Magician, and the Sister Tree is a lifeline for caregivers, grieving families, and anyone navigating the slow loss of someone they love.

The book is available wherever books are sold and arrives in time for Alzheimer's and Brain Awareness Month. The Kindle edition will be offered at $0.99 during launch week, June 2 through June 7, so cost isn't a barrier for the caregivers and families who need it.

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Anticipatory grief, the sorrow of losing someone incrementally while they're still present, is one of the most common and least discussed experiences. McNamara spent years inside that grief, caring for her husband Bobby as Alzheimer's reshaped their life together, and losing her beloved younger sister at the same time. She wrote The Silkworm, the Magician, and the Sister Tree because the book she needed during those years didn't exist. It does now.

"Caregivers are often the invisible participants in the Alzheimer's conversation," McNamara said. "They show up every day for the person they love, and they're doing it while grieving someone who's still alive. I wrote this book so they would feel less alone in that."

To bring that conversation into the community, McNamara will host two public events in the Chicago area this June. On June 17, she will hold her first public book signing and reading. On June 23, she will be joined by Katie Seigenthaler, a writer and communications executive whose career began at The Washington Post and The Chicago Tribune, for a moderated conversation followed by an open audience discussion and signing.

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A fall book tour with stops in Beavercreek, Dallas and Atlanta will extend the conversation to caregiving communities nationwide.

Suzy McNamara is a writer, caregiver and widow whose work centers on the emotional experience of Alzheimer's caregiving, loss and life after grief. She's also the author of the Substack publication The Long Goodbye Letters and is based in the Chicago area.

Event Information

June 17 — 6:00 p.m., Lake Forest Book Store, 662 N. Western Avenue, Lake Forest, IL 60045

June 23 — 6:30 p.m., A Conversation on Love, Loss and Memory moderated by Katie Seigenthaler, Book Stall, 811 Elm Street, Winnetka, IL 60093

Sept. 19 — 1:00 p.m., Book Signing, Barnes & Noble, 2691 Miamisburg Centerville Road, Beavercreek, Ohio.