Letting Go, Holding On: A Caregiver's Journey Through Dementia - Paperback

by Sheri Rettew (Author)

A Field Guide for Dementia Caregivers

When you're living with dementia, caregiving day by day, you don't need a dense textbook.

You need something you can open in the middle of a crisis and find steady guidance.

Letting Go, Holding On is a compassionate and practical guide for individuals caring for a loved one with dementia. Written from lived experience, it addresses the emotional, physical, and logistical realities of dementia caregiving-from the earliest signs of concern through diagnosis, daily care at home, long-term planning, placement decisions, hospice, and the ongoing grief that follows.

Dementia caregiving is rarely linear and often isolating. Caregivers must navigate constant change while managing grief, guilt, fear, exhaustion, and complex medical and family decisions-frequently without adequate guidance or support. This book honestly acknowledges those challenges, offering clarity and validation without minimizing the journey's difficulty.

Inside, you'll find guidance on:

• Understanding dementia and its stages
• Communicating effectively as cognition changes
• Managing daily care, behavioral challenges, and medical complications
• Navigating family dynamics and advocating within healthcare systems
• Planning for financial and legal responsibilities
• Evaluating in-home care, memory care, and skilled facilities
• Recognizing when hospice and comfort-focused care may be appropriate

Reflection prompts, caregiver perspectives, and practical checklists allow readers to pause, process, and apply information at their own pace. A glossary and resource appendix provide additional support for unfamiliar terminology and next steps.

This is not a clinical manual or a promise of easy answers. It is a steady companion-written by someone who has walked the road-not to offer perfect answers, but possibilities, along with clarity, structure, and permission.

For family caregivers, adult children, spouses, and anyone supporting someone with dementia, this book affirms a simple truth:

Caring deeply does not require doing everything alone.

Dementia caregiving is not a straight path-and it is rarely something anyone is prepared for.

Almost immediately, it asks for something far deeper than strength. At times, it can feel like it's going to break you.

Letting Go, Holding On was written for that space-where love, grief, anxiety, responsibility, and vulnerability intersect. It is a gentle companion for those caring for someone with dementia, offering grounded wisdom shaped by lived experience, acknowledgement, reflection, and reassurance.

This is not a book about fixing what cannot be fixed. It is about learning how to remain present, humane, and whole-while everything else is changing.

If you are walking this road, unsure of what comes next, this book is here to remind you: your experience matters, your feelings make sense, and you are not alone.

FROM THE AUTHOR

This is the book I wish I'd had when I began my journey with my mother seven years ago. Other books existed, but I couldn't imagine trying to read something long or clinical while doing the day-to-day work of caregiving. I needed a book that acted more like a field guide-one that offered guidance on what to do, where to go for help, and reassurance that I wasn't going crazy.

Letting Go, Holding On is the result-and it's a journey I'm still traveling. My hope is that within these pages, you'll find both help and comfort.

If you'd like to connect, please visit the book's online companion at www.dementiacaregroup.com.