Where is Whitney Now? takes the reader through the arduous twelve-year journey of caregiver Don Cramer in his struggle to keep his own life balanced and thriving as he cares for his treasured wife—as both their lives are slowly erased by the relentless steamroller of Alzheimer’s.
A recent Merrill Lynch survey revealed that Alzheimer’s is the scariest, most feared of all diseases, by a wide margin. Relentless and incurable, it affects those with the diagnosis and everyone around them. But little has been written about the day-to-day challenges that face the caregiver: the constant vigilance, the need to take on ever-increasing responsibilities, the social and financial pressures, the heartbreaking estrangement, the desperate need for help, plus understanding how to cope with the massive changes they face as a loved one’s brain is compromised.
Where is Whitney Now? is an intimate, heartfelt, no-holds-barred recounting of the Cramers’ seemingly charmed lives, and the frightening erosion of the life they had planned. When Whitney slipped unexpectedly beyond Don’s ability to manage her care, it required an immediate, gut-wrenching move to the enchanting Colonial hill town of San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico, where he had located a remarkable Alzheimer’s facility to provide the loving care for Whitney he had thought impossible.
What happens in San Miguel is compelling, sobering and inspiring. Where is Whitney Now? interweaves the story of the Cramers’ first ten years with Alzheimer’s, along with Don’s journal entries of Whitney’s continuing decline since arriving in Mexico—the jumble of his emotions, his caretaking strategies, his profound sense of loss and search for his own new place in the world. It is a compelling read; sobering and ultimately transformative. As we watch Whitney slip away, we have a front seat on the unstoppable rollercoaster of escalating demands and attention required to handle a future they could not have imagined.
