The Things We Keep - Books - Books

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Summary

In the novel “The things we keep”, Sally Hepworth pens this touching story of one of today’s nightmares: early-onset Alzheimer’s.

Anna Forster is in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease at only thirty-eight years old. She knows that her family is doing what they believe to be the best. So they take her to Rosalind House, an assisted living facility. She also knows there’s just one other resident her age, Luke. What she does not expect is the love that blossoms between her and Luke. Even as she resists her new life at Rosalind House. Her disease steals more and more of her memory. Anna fights to hold on to what she knows, including her relationship with Luke.

Eve Bennett is suddenly thrust into the role of a single mother. She finds herself putting her culinary training to use at Rosalind house. When she meets Anna and Luke she is moved by the bond the pair has forged. A tragic incident leads to Anna’s and Luke’s families to separate them. Eve finds herself questioning what she is willing to risk to help them.

Reviews

Sally Hepworth (Review from the author)

Dear Reader,

Five years ago, I watched a news segment about a woman—a newlywed—who was pregnant with her first child. She had also recently been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 31 years old.

More recently a friend of mine, who is a nurse at a dementia facility, told me about an elderly man and woman who held hands in the communal living area of the center every day. They came into the facility as strangers. Their memories were less than five minutes long. They were both non-verbal. Yet every day, they sat next to each other. Every day he reached for her hand, and every day she allowed him to take it. And for them, every time was the first time.

As I researched this book, I heard the story of a woman who didn’t remember that she was married, but who began to cry when she saw her wedding dress. The man who didn’t recognize his wife but gravitated toward her whenever she visited, often asking if she’d like to “take a walk sometime”—the very line he used when he asked her out the first time, sixty years earlier. The story of a grandfather who shielded his granddaughter from a dog, though he couldn’t have recalled who she was, let alone her terror of dogs.

Dementia isn’t the only place that memories are found to be flawed—people find out they can’t rely on their memories every day. People blindsided in relationships. People who find out their truth is a lie. People pulled from trauma. People awakened.

I wondered: If you can’t use memories to steer your life, what can you use? I didn’t know. It was why I had to write this book.

I hope you enjoy it.

Sally xox

Lindsay – Traveling-sister

This was an easy, enjoyable, and educational read. It was a very sad story about early-onset Alzheimer’s but there were many moments of happiness and hope.

I learned a lot about what it is like for family members looking after a loved one with Alzheimer’s. This disease is absolutely devastating. The author, Sally Hepworth, also gives the reader a glimpse of what it might be like to live with this terrible disease. Some chapters are told from the perspective of an Alzheimer’s patient. The frustration and helplessness are heartbreaking.

The book revolves around the love story of Anna and Luke. Two young residents at the Rosalind House, an assisted-living facility. Anna has early-onset Alzheimer’s. Luke has early-onset dementia.

There are a couple of reasons this book lost a few stars for me. I found several things throughout the story that seemed a little too convenient. And there were a couple of things that were very predictable. I also found myself comparing this book with Lisa Genova’s novel “Still Alice” which is one of my favorite books. Also about early-onset Alzheimer’s. Overall, I did enjoy the book, but not as much as I enjoyed Hepworth’s previous novel, “The Secrets of Midwives”

My Thoughts of this Book

What an amazing novel. It’s not often that a person can find a book about Alzheimer disease that is inspiring and touching, but this one was

This is a sad story. But at the end of the book, I had a good, warm feeling. It wasn’t just the ending I fell in love with. It was the characters and how they cope and survive the difficulties that occur because of the people around them. It’s several beautiful love stories.

This book is about losing loved ones. Not just to death but to the person they become when they no longer remember. It’s about coming to terms with those losses. About caring, empathic people who are prepared to take the risks to help people who can’t help themselves. To take each day as it comes and to be grateful for what is left. Not to spend time thinking about what is lost.

I have to say that is was a wonderful and brilliant story. I look forward to reading more novels by Sally Hepworth.

Here’s a link to Amazon if you would like to purchase this awesome book!