Guest Post from Christoph Fischer

Christoph Fischer was here last week with an interview and excerpt from his new novel, Time to Let Go, a book that deals with the issue of Alzheimer's disease. I'm glad to have him back today with a guest post in which he talks about the real woman who inspired his novel; Alzheimer's disease; the airlines industry (another subject of the book); and memory. As I mentioned in Christoph's previous post, my mother had Vascular dementia, a sister to Alzheimer's, and I can say firsthand that Christoph's observances are spot on. I'm happy to have Christoph here today to shed some light on the issue of dementia and to talk more about his book.

About the book:

Time to Let Go is a contemporary family drama set in Britain.

Following a traumatic incident at work Stewardess Hanna Korhonen decides to take time off work and leaves her home in London to spend quality time with her elderly parents in rural England. There she finds that neither can she run away from her problems, nor does her family provide the easy getaway place that she has hoped for. Her mother suffers from Alzheimer's disease and, while being confronted with the consequences of her issues at work, she and her entire family are forced to reassess their lives.

The book takes a close look at family dynamics and at human nature in a time of a crisis. Their challenges, individual and shared, take the Korhonens on a journey of self-discovery and redemption.

Guest Post by Christoph Fischer

“The Real Biddy Korhonen”

I grew up with only a few friends and with two older siblings who were miles ahead of me in their lives. My mother was a busy woman, and so I spent a lot of time at my aunt’s house. She had always wanted to have four children but lost one child at birth. Her other three children were much older and didn’t need her much anymore, so my visits to her house filled a gap for her, in the same way as her attention to me filled a need in me. A match made in heaven. 
Philomena, or Minna, as we called her, remained a source of happiness and encouragement throughout my life. I was always welcome and treated like a precious gift. She smoked, but she outlived both of her sisters (taken in their 40s by cancer). 


In her late 70s,  Minna was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Well, I thought, at least she lives, belittling her misfortune without much awareness.


The next time I saw her, her trademark happiness, however, seemed far away. She was crying bitterly because she had lost her hearing aid, a very expensive one, too. Suddenly her life seemed to revolve around retrieving things. She was spared the physical pain of her sisters, but she suffered severe mental torture.


She fortunately reached a happier stage as medication and care helped reduce the misery in her life, but the attention she needed was a huge toll to the family. Despite her memory loss, she seemed to vaguely recognise me; me, the ‘child’ that lived abroad and who rarely came to visit. She had not lost her warmth and happiness, or maybe she had just regained it after the bad patch I mentioned earlier.


Very recently I saw her again, almost unrecognisable: withdrawn, very unresponsive and almost reduced to basic functioning. Surprisingly, she could still read, and when I came to see her for a second time, her eyes shone as if she did recognise me. I spoke an emotional goodbye to her and her hand was shaky and excited as she listened to my speech. She even responded by talking, using words that didn’t fit exactly but which expressed an emotion similar to what one would expect from a loving aunt in such a situation.


With her loving kindness in mind I created Biddy, the mother in Time to let Go, a selfless, giving woman, who even in her illness manages to show her innate kindness. I know it would be wrong to praise her for a gift that many other patients do not have, through no fault of their own. Losing one’s memory and control of one’s life is a terrible thing that you can only understand when it happens to you.

Time to Let Go is partly meant as a tribute to my brave aunt and to the wonderful people who help make her life dignified and as happy as is possible.

***

Alzheimer's

My book is inspired by personal experiences with sufferers from the disease. Nowadays, almost everyone knows someone who has relatives with Alzheimer's and gradually stories and anecdotes about these patients have entered the social dinner party circuit and become common knowledge.

Alzheimer's is a dreadful disease that cannot be easily understood in its gravity and the complex, frustrating and far reaching consequences for the victims and their families. There are different stages of the disease as it progresses and patients can move through them at different paces and in varying intensity. My book does not attempt to be a complete representation or a manual of how to deal with the disease. The illness affects every patient differently and there are many stories to tell and many aspects to cover. I hope that I can bring some of those issues to the surface and help to make the gravity of the disease more prominent. I did, however, decide to stay firmly in fiction and family drama territory, and not to write a dramatized documentary on the subject.

I have witnessed several different approaches to handling the disease by both individuals and entire families, and I have learned that the people involved in every case need to work out what is best for them. In my book, a family work out their particular approach, which is right for them. They have different ideas about it and need to battle it out. These clashes fascinated me and I felt they were worth exploring.

Issues of caring at home, mobile care assistance or institutionalising patients are personal and, depending on where in the world you are, every family has very different options or limitations. The ending in my book must be seen in that context: as an individual ‘best’ solution that uniquely fits the Korhonen family.



As point of first reference and for a more comprehensive and scientific overview of information and help available, I recommend: http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/ in the UK, and http://www.alz.org/ in the US. 
There are support groups, helplines, and many other sources available in most countries. These will be able to advise specifically for each  individual situation.
(Note from Amy: I found www.alz.org to be extremely helpful. I highly recommend it.)



I can also recommend Because We Care by Fran Lewis. This fantastic book has a comprehensive appendix with more or less everything you need to know about the disease: its stages, personal advice on caring, information, tools and help available in the US.

For consistency, I exclusively used material relating to a medium-advanced stage of the disease. To protect the privacy and dignity of the patients that inspired the story I have altered all of the events and used both first and secondhand experiences and anecdotes. Nothing in this book has actually happened in that way. Apart from some outer parallels between my characters and patients I witnessed, any similarities with real people, alive or dead, are coincidental and unintended.

*****

Airlines

The airline plot is not based on any real incident but is inspired by my own imagination. I used to work for an airline and so naturally, much of Hanna’s life is based on my own experience of 15 years flying. I lived with the awareness that every time a call bell goes off on a plane this could be a matter of life and death. What happens to Hanna in the book has never happened to me or anyone close to me. My flying life was not that extraordinary. Fortunately. 
But every year airline crew are retrained in emergency procedures and aviation medicine, and at least during those intense yearly re-training sessions, your mind cannot help considering the possibilities of such events.


The modern trend of the ‘suing- and compensation-culture’ and the extent of it in some cases worries me a little, which is why some of that concern found its way into the book.


The lifestyle of cabin crew and pilots is often falsely glorified as a glamorous string of free holidays and leisure. A recent crew strike in the UK has brought the profession into disrepute in the media as fat cats and lazy bones. My book aims to shed a bit of light on the realities of flying. I enjoyed the life and would not want to miss the experience, but it is a tough life that demands huge personal sacrifices and flexibility, sleep deprivation on a massive scale, and exposure to aggressive and abusive behaviour by a consumerist clientele. In the global trend of cost cutting, salaries are going down and what used to be a career is at risk of becoming a minimum wage job handed to people who have no experience and who have no incentive to give it their all.


My book is a tribute to my former colleagues in the airline industry, who, in my opinion, are unsung heroes and a bunch of wonderful, hard-working and very caring people.

*****

Memory 



What makes Alzheimer's so terrible? What is it that makes a memory so important to one’s life that people compare its horrors to pain-inflicting diseases like cancer? You are alive and physically well, you eat and function as a human, but as an Alzheimer patient you are bound to be suffering, frustrated, depressed and unhappy.


Of course it is ridiculous to compare the two diseases, but while a cancer patient has still their awareness and choices, the Alzheimer sufferer is losing the core of their being, everything they ever were. 


How can you define yourself if you cannot remember? You have had children, but you won’t recognise them. You won awards, had a successful career, made people happy, but you don’t know any of it. Who are you and what are you doing on the planet? Who are the people around you? As the disease progresses, these things become more intense and you can live in a mental prison of fear and disorientation. Your brain won’t do as you want it to. The fear of losing ‘it’ altogether, for some is impossible to bear. You are about to lose everything that was ever precious to you.


That thought is frightening to all of us. It can happen to all of us. The worst stage seems to be when patients still notice that something is wrong. We all know how annoying it is when we just put something down and don’t remember where. Imagine that happening to you all the time, every day, and you get an idea of how it might feel. The carers see their loved ones slowly drift away into a stranger.

Biddy’s husband Walter in my novel becomes obsessed with preserving memories – his own and others. He begins to write a family chronicle as a constructive outlet for his fears. He is an important character with his musings about preserving knowledge, memories and facts, and he allowed me to bring in thoughts about the disease on a different and more reflective level.

I hope that I have managed to write about more than just the clinical side of the disease. I stuck to the early stages of Alzheimer's in the story because it gave me the best opportunities to work these thoughts into the story. It allows me to look back at Biddy’s past but with still a lot of hope.


About the author:

Christoph Fischer was born in Germany, near the Austrian border. After a few years in Hamburg he moved on to the UK where he now lives in a small hamlet, not far from Bath.  He and his partner have three Labradoodles to complete their family.

Christoph worked for the British Film Institute, in libraries, museums and for a major airline. He completed the historical Three Nations Trilogy last year, which included: The Luck of the Weissensteiners, Sebastian, and The Black Eagle Inn.

Connect with Christoph:
Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | 
Goodreads

Buy the book:
Amazon

Did you know?
In addition to writing, Christoph and I have something else in common: we both own

Labradoodles. In fact, Wilma, one of Christoph's three Labradoodles, just had puppies (go to his Facebook page or his blog for adorable pictures!). This little nugget of trivia really isn't relevant to this blog, but the picture Christoph sent me is just too darn cute not to post. Congratulations, Papa Christoph!

And Christoph asked, and I delivered... here's an up close and personal  picture (left) of my Cooper.

Talking With Candace George Thompson

 
I'm happy to have Candace George Thompson here today to talk about her new biography, Still Having Fun, A Portrait of the Military Marriage of Rex and Bettie George, 1941 - 2007.

About the book:

This biography of a military marriage which lasted from 1941 until 2007 includes everything from letters written in war zones to photographs that chronicle the lives and romance of Rex and Bettie George. Written after their deaths, Still Having Fun is a moving testament to the character and resilience of American military families, with 55 photos and illustrations.


Welcome, Candace. Tell me how long you've been writing, and how did you start?

I’ve written articles for employee newsletters – or “house organs,” as they were called. (That term always amuses me.) I wrote an e-zine for my clients when I had an executive coaching practice.

Until after my parents died and I was re-reading my mother’s letters from Okinawa, I had never even considered writing a book.

How did you come up with the title of your book?

When Alzheimer’s disease began to steal my mother’s independence, my father became her sole caretaker. He shopped, cooked, cleaned, and did the laundry. He dressed her, fixed her hair, and applied her make-up. He wore himself out. Whenever we expressed concern about how he was holding up, he always replied, “We’re still having fun.” I considered lots of other possible titles, but “Still Having Fun” seemed to be the best description of how my parents chose to live their lives.

That is so beautiful. I know firsthand that being the caretaker of someone with dementia can be brutal. I love the pictures on your cover. Tell me how you came up with the cover art.
On my Facebook author page, I had used a 1950 photo of my parents, taken at the original Knotts Berry Farm in southern California - when it really was a farm, not an amusement park. They are posing behind cardboard old-fashioned wedding clothes. To me, the shot shows that Rex and Bettie had always liked to have fun.

When my publisher asked me what I wanted on the cover, I told her I liked that snapshot, but was concerned because it was black and white. “I’ve got some ideas,” she said, “let me play with it.” She came back with the title in gold script, which fit with the old-fashioned tone of the photo, and she photo-shopped a picture of me into the cameo frame in the background. Very clever, I think. Then she put color photos on the back cover.

I worked with Mary Catharine Nelson at Published by Westview. She was terrific. When I first looked at their website I noted that they had an artist available, with one caveat: She wouldn’t do cows! What a hoot! I was tempted to test that, but never did. No cows in my book. That did help me make my decision about Westview, though. A little sense of humor can go a long way in making a person comfortable.

Are you like your mother and father at all?

I sure am. I inherited my mother’s love of rhyming and singing, and, like her, I pop out of bed in the morning, eagerly anticipating the new day. She taught me to treat all people with respect and kindness, and I hope I’m living up to her standards.

My father ingrained in me the value of self-sufficiency. I can’t say that I even come close to having all the life-skills that he developed, but I can thank him for insisting I learn to type, drive, and cook. Despite his military background and sometimes gruff demeanor, he enjoyed being silly and loved a good joke. When he was deployed to Okinawa right before Mother was due to deliver my sister Jennifer, he sent Mother a photo of himself doing a headstand. He was the first to put on a pig nose for a family portrait. “Silly” is one of my core values.

What song would you pick to go with your book?

Oh, this is a hard one. Songs and song-cues were part of my family’s fiber. I guess I would pick “Far Away Places.” The lyrics personify my parents’ adventuresome spirit and their desire to get to know people from different backgrounds. “I’m going to China or maybe Siam. I wanna see for myself, those far away places with the strange sounding names, calling, calling me.”

Lucky for you, Amy, that this interview isn’t being recorded, because I’m now singing that song. (Written in 1948 by Joan Whiting and Alex Kramer and covered by just about every singer of the period.)

Who are your favorite authors?

Having been a Spanish Lit major in college and lived in Venezuela and Mexico, I try to read everything put out by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Julia Alvarez, and Isabel Allende. I used to be able to read them in Spanish, but I’m a bit rusty at this point. Luis Urrea, author of The Hummingbird’s Daughter is also on my read pile.


What are your favorite books or favorite authors?
I still have one of my very early books, Geraldine Belinda, by Marguerite Henry.  Published in 1942, it was given to me for Christmas in 1947 by my Aunt Annetta when we were stationed in occupied Okinawa Japan.
   
Geraldine Belinda Marybel Scott saved her pennies and now has 25. “And what a lot of things twenty-five pennies could buy!” She makes a list and goes shopping at Mr. Tweedle’s notion shop. Feeling quite the grown-up with her purchases wrapped in a brown paper horn, she ignores her friends as she walks home “with her nose in the air.” Her toys fall out of the package as she hurries past them, but her friends find her purchases and return them to her.

The moral of the story – which I remember to this day – is, “Don’t put on airs when you have pennies to spend – for you never can tell how the story will end.”


What book are you currently reading and in what format (e-book/paperback/hardcover)?

Much of my reading of late has been works of fellow members of writers groups I belong to. Some are in e-book form, others are paperback. I’m about halfway through the e-book edition of a beautiful story by a fellow Military Writers Society of America member, Bonnie Latino, called Your Gift to Me. And I just finished a delightful paperback mystery you might be familiar with: Murder and Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction.

I have heard of that one! I hear the author is brilliant. How do you handle criticism of your work?

I use it. A couple of my early readers, a history prof and an editor I’ve never met, gave me invaluable feedback that definitely improved and enriched Still Having Fun.

Where’s home for you?

I live in a high-rise in Chicago. I love city living.

I was just in Chicago last summer. It's a fun town. Want to see my vacation pictures? Just kidding. I'll only bore you with one. Tell us one weird thing, one nice thing, and one fact about where you live.

Hmmm. Well, it’s pretty weird to have beavers in the landlocked, man-made pond near us, but somehow they find the place! Usually they are quickly removed before they take down too many trees, but a couple times they’ve stayed, built lodges and had young.

The really nice thing is that we can walk to shops, restaurants and theatres. And, Lincoln Park, which goes along the shoreline of Lake Michigan for several miles north of the city center, is across the street, so I can enjoy birds and squirrels on my morning walks.

Chicago is the best live theatre city in the country.

If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

I’m planning on staying right here in Chicago. It’s an excellent place to age – good public transportation, hospitals, and you can get anything delivered to your door. A few weeks in Mexico during February makes the winter more bearable.

I'm a fan of quotes. What’s one of your favorites?

“Be ashamed to die until you have won some victory for humanity,” by Horace Mann, first president of my alma mater, Antioch College, in his commencement address to the 1859 graduating class. This is now the college motto and has been repeated to every graduating class since.

What three books have you read recently and would recommend?
   
You mean besides Murder and Mayhem in Goose Pimple Junction?

Oh yes, besides GPJ. Which, by the way is still just ninety-nine cents for Kindle. (She says with a cheesy grin.)

Gated Grief - The Daughter of a GI Concentration Camp Liberator Discovers a Legacy of Trauma, by Leila Levinson.

How Can You Mend This Purple Heart, by T.L. Gould, a moving story of severely wounded Vietnam Vets.

Lead Us Not into Temptation, Volume I of The Lord’s Prayer mystery series, by Richard Davidson. I find it amazing how much history one can learn from a good mystery writer. I’ve just purchased the next 3 volumes in the series.

Last question. What are you working on now?

I’m mostly in the marketing mode right now, but I’ve been writing articles and essays hoping to be able to place them in newspapers and magazines. An essay about my father, “Devotion,” is in the recently published Military Writers Society of America’s themed anthology titled, Silent Battlefields, and a piece about the gracious and generous Mexican people, based on my 45+ years of visiting their fair country, was accepted for inclusion in Coast Lines 2, a judged anthology produced by the Puerto Vallarta Writers Group.

Congratulations! And thanks for being here, Candace.



About the author:

I'm the daughter of a 30-year career Air Force officer whose first mission as a B-24 navigator was on D-Day. I was born in Kentucky, as were both my parents and like most service families, ours moved frequently. (My guess is that I “lived” in Kentucky only a week or two.) By the time I started 10th grade, I had changed schools 13 times.
After college graduation with a B.A. in Spanish Lit from Antioch College, I served in Venezuela as a Peace Corps volunteer. My rootless way of life continued upon my return - Vermont, San Francisco, Portland, Oregon, and New Jersey.

My husband and I have now lived in Chicago for over 30 years - eight times longer than any other place. I'm happy to have finally found a home. I love Chicago!
My interests include reading, writing, sharing a good meal with friends, laughing, early morning walks, rock and roll, squirrels and penguins, Mexico, weird tidbits of information, and last but not least, my wonderful, supportive husband.

Connect with Candace:

Website (under construction)

Facebook page

Amazon Paperback and Kindle versions, both with 55 photos and illustrations.