You are not looking for a book about dementia. You are looking for a way to show up for the person you love and to stop feeling like you're failing at that while everything else in your life keeps moving.
When Sam began searching for a resource to help her navigate her mother's cognitive decline, she couldn't find what she needed. Something that held both the personal and the practical in one place, so she could focus on being a daughter instead of a case manager.
This book is what she couldn't find.
Part memoir, part practical guide, Losing Someone Who Is Still Here moves through every stage of the caregiving journey: the early warning signs that are easy to miss, the information desert that swallows most families whole, building a care team from scratch, holding your family together, and planning for what comes next. Each chapter ends with the practical information she wishes someone had handed her.
Written from inside the experience, not from the other side of it. This book is for the person who just noticed something they can't unfeel. For the family already inside a crisis. For anyone who knows this particular kind of grief, the grief of losing someone who is still here.
You don't have to search this hard alone.
The resources mentioned in the book, and more, are collected here for readers.
Where to buy
Coming soon.
About the author
Samantha Smith is a professional with more than fifteen years of experience spanning nonprofit work, higher education, and small business ownership. She is the primary caregiver for her mother, who has Lewy Body dementia, alongside her brother. Losing Someone Who Is Still Here is her first book. It grew out of her search for a resource that held both the personal and the practical in one place, something she needed and couldn't find. She lives in central Ohio with her family.