The last couple of weeks has been a little tough on anyone who has had the pleasure of following the “Alzheimer’s Reading Room” and the life and times of Bob DeMarco and his mother Dotty.
The Alzheimer’s Reading Room was founded by Bob DeMarco, after caring for his mother, who suffers from Alzheimer’s, Bob realized there was a need for useful, high quality information that could be used by Alzheimer’s Caregivers to care for their loved one. The Alzheimer’s Reading Room has more than 5,750 subscribers and 47,000 unique visitors each month. Bob is a full time Caregiver to his mother.

The Alzheimer’s Reading Room is a blog that Bob started to chronicle the Caregiving experience that he was going through with his mother Dotty as she suffered through the different stages of Alzheimer’s disease. Although Bob would never use the word suffer, he would choose to look on the bright side and look at the whole ordeal as a learning experience, and brought us along for the ride

The last couple of weeks Bob has been going through the process that brought him to the end of life part of Alzheimer’s and he would continuously keep all his readers updated on Dotty’s decline and keep us all informed about his thoughts and his words of not only encouragement, but words that taught us how to deal with the Caregiving process.

I personally have been following Bob for the last 18 months, and I am one of those 5,750 subscribers to his blog. I found that every time Bob posted another article or tip, or some advice on being a Caregiver to be most informative, and he personally taught me a lot on being a great Caregiver. Although Bob and I have never met or talked to one another, I always felt that he was talking to just me when he wrote. He had a style that was most comforting and you never felt that you were being talked down too. His compassion and his way of teaching were just incredible.

Every day over the last two weeks, I would go to my inbox and find another update on Dotty. “It is 5:00 AM and Dotty is still with us”, one post read. As he kept us updated it would get to the point that your eyes would glaze over when reading what Bob had to say. There was no feeling sorry for himself or for Dotty, he would tell us to keep fighting and don’t let the disease win. He would try and bring our spirits up and keep us from feeling sorry for ourselves. This I found to be just amazing.

On his blog he says that the “The goal of the Alzheimer’s Reading Room is to Educate, sometimes Entertain, and Empower Alzheimer’s caregivers, their families, and the entire Alzheimer’s community.”
He should have included as one of his goals to be “Come along for the ride and we’ll learn and get through this process we call Caregiving together”.

Bob; on behalf of everyone here at the Alzheimer’s Research Association please accept our sincere condolences on the passing of your mother Dotty. We will miss her right along with you, and please keep your blog going, every Caregiver can use your knowledge and your compassion.

We encourage all of our members and visitors to check out the Alzheimer’s Reading Room, all of us can use all the help we can get, and Bob and his blog is another great resource for all of us.  Click Here to view Bob’s blog.

Joe Lucido
Director
Alzheimer’s Research Association