A writing couple searches for answers when Alzheimer's causes one of them to lose the place where stories come from — memory. At the age of fifty-three, Tony walks away from a life of journalism and into an unknown future. June is forty-eight, a writer and teacher, and over the following decade watches as her husband changes — in interests, goals, and behaviour — until Tony has a fall, ending the life they had known. A diagnosis is seven years away, yet the signs of Alzheimer’s are all around. A suitcase Tony packs for a trip is jammed with four umbrellas, a visual symbol of cognitive looping. But how far back do these signs go? The couple starts probing the past and finding answers. This is not an old person’s disease.

"The Queer, the Quaint, and the Quizzical: A Cabinet for the Curious" is a collection of oddities, wonders, superstitions, and curiosities from different eras and cultures. This book presents a diverse array of topics, including unusual customs, bizarre beliefs, strange phenomena, and curious inventions. With a blend of humour, philosophy, and historical insights, this book explores the mysteries and eccentricities of human nature. It contains topics related to moon dials, sacred pins, shooting stars, or books with unpronounceable names.

Valerie was born in 1945 when families were encouraged to keep secrets. the rule, 'what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas', stems from this concept. Unmarried and pregnant young girls were sent to visit their fictitious Aunt Martha, or hidden in the upstairs bedroom. If your father beat your mother, you learned quickly to accept his behavior as the norm in all families. What we now view as abnormal behavior was never discussed with friends, neighbors, or the authorities. there were few laws governing family safety, no books telling you what to do to protect yourself, and no councilors to provide advice. Silence ruled. Sadly, this silence birthed a generation of people unable to cope with the misery and chaos in their lives. With no one to lead them out of the darkness, many were forced to find their own coping methods which, in turn, created new (and some not so new) psychiatric maladies such as Borderline Personality disorder (BPD) a, and Post Traumat6ic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Abuse, all abuse, creates monsters of us all whether we want to admit it or not.