Love Anyway: A Mother Daughter Journey of Caregiving

A poignant memoir about a daughter's life changing journey as her mother's caregiver and the many challenges of caring for a chronically ill parent.

Pat's relationship with her mother, Anne, changed drastically when she moved in with Pat and her husband after being diagnosed with end stage COPD. Anne's husband passed away the year before and she could no longer live alone. Pat juggled working full time as a medical professional, with the daily demands of caregiving and her mother's deteriorating health. Being the oldest of four with two hearing impaired siblings, her experience with caregiving started early. Her chosen career was in service to others as a registered nurse. Becoming her mother's caregiver seemed to be the next step.

However, the daily demands of being a caregiver altered the relationship between mother and daughter, and Pat questioned everything she thought she knew about her mother and herself. Was this supposed to happen? Why can't I do this without feeling frustrated, angry, and guilty? Where do these emotions come from? And why is my mother drinking?

Love Anyway is a story that is heartbreaking, humorous, memorable, and relatable to mothers and daughters everywhere. You will laugh and cry. You will laugh at the bottle of gin hidden in the pillowcase in the closet, the accidental shoplifting of jewelry and a watch, and the bra fitting fiasco in the fitting room. You will cry when Anne goes home to God and when her companion dog, Bandit, follows her. After reading this book, caregivers everywhere, will share the same emotions, doubts, and fears, and daughters everywhere will be asking the same questions when taking care of their mother. The mother daughter relationship is tested over and over and leads to finding forgiveness, fortitude, understanding, and especially love.