Bittersweet Chance to Meet Favorite Novelist in 2010

One Sunday morning last Spring, I read about the plight of a loving couple confronting the dementia that would take the life of the husband. Sad, and not unusual for me after eleven years as a senior communications director at the Alzheimer's Association.

But this time the piece, a Modern Love essay in the New York Times, was by Elinor Lipman (pictured at right).

Elinor Lipman is the best-selling author of nine sparkling comic novels. She is a designated NY Times Book Review Editors' Choice, the 20th (now 21st) Century incarnation of Jane Austen. Elinor Lipman is my favorite living novelist.

Now, Elinor Lipman was applying her gifts to tell the story of how frontotemporal dementia (FTD) had intruded upon her family life. UCSF's Memory Clinic, here in San Francisco, is one of the nation's foremost centers for FTP research. While in touch with the research side, Elinor Lipman used her Times essay to tell the family side of the FTP story with exquisite precision and brave humor. Her piece is now available to FTP families reaching out to the Alzheimer's Association for support and comfort.

After sending an email in appreciation via the Times, we arranged to meet during her upcoming visit to San Francisco to promote her latest novel, The Family Man. After the reading and a chat, she made a point of introducing me to Dr. Robert Farese, Jr., MD, the Senior Investigator at the UCSF-based Consortium for FTD Research who also attended the reading with Consortium Chief Operating Officer Megan Grether, PhD.

As the American population ages and dementia cases approach tidal wave proportions, increasing numbers of dementia caregivers - and now early stage patients - are using the arts to grasp and then to convey a sense of their experience. When a uniquely gifted writer converts her personal clash with dementia into a public narrative, she is adding to a landscape where the comforts are still far too sparse.

For more about Elinor Lipman, click here.

News Update: On January 4, 2011
President Obama signed into law the National Alzheimer's Project Act (NAPA) which during the just-ended Lame-Duck Congress was passed by unanimous votes in both the Senate and the House. This means that for the first time there will be a coordinated national strategy to overcome the national crisis of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, including FTD. Click here for more information.