Too Bad About That

A darkly funny memoir about caregiving, grief, and everything life refuses to put on hold. Heartbreak and humor. Sometimes on the same page.

When Elizabeth Humphreys’s mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, life doesn’t politely step aside. There are children to raise, a marriage to protect, dreams to pursue, impossible medical decisions to make, and a thousand ordinary moments that somehow continue alongside extraordinary loss. As her mother’s world slowly unravels, Elizabeth struggles to keep her own from doing the same.

Through it all, life remains gloriously, painfully absurd. There are moments so heartbreaking they steal your breath, and others so ridiculous you’ll laugh despite yourself. Sometimes on the same page. Anyone who has ever been a caregiver knows the truth: humor isn’t the opposite of grief. Sometimes it’s the only way through it.

Rather than offering easy answers or a polished account of caregiving, Too Bad About That tells the truth. Caregiving is messy, exhausting, hilarious, heartbreaking, and deeply human. Woven throughout Elizabeth’s story are the lessons she learned not only while caring for her mother, but also from walking beside hundreds of other caregivers through her national nonprofit. The result is a memoir that offers something no diagnosis or doctor’s appointment ever can: the reassurance that you are not failing, you are not imagining how hard this is, and you are never as alone as caregiving makes you feel.

Ultimately, Too Bad About That is a love story disguised as a caregiving memoir. It is about what survives when memory doesn’t, how laughter can coexist with heartbreak, and why the person quietly falling apart while caring for everyone else deserves saving, too.