Mary MacCracken > Quotes

“Level with you child by being honest. Nobody spots a phony quicker than a child.”
― Mary MacCracken

“I was gradually learning as a teacher why teachers’ colleges were wrong to spend so much time on planning. The most important thing to learn was to be able to throw the plan away, whatever it was. What was necessary was to listen, to follow each minute to its peak, learning as you went.”
― Mary MacCracken, The Lost Children

“But how to explain my absence to Cal? His youngest daughter, Karen, always thoughtful and kind, called to say her friends, caring for parents with Alzheimer’s, said just to tell him right before I left. “Say you’ll be back soon, you have an appointment, and that he’ll have fun,” she advised. “My friends say you can tell him the same thing every day and that you will both be happier.”
― Mary MacCracken, The Memory of All That: A Love Story about Alzheimer's

“But I was not prepared. I hadn’t really believed it would happen to Cal. He was going downhill, growing more and more confused.”
― Mary MacCracken, The Memory of All That: A Love Story about Alzheimer's

“It was hard to imagine that one day I would be able to recall Larry with only a neutral kind of tenderness. Now the divorce brought back memories, and thinking of Larry was like touching a bruise, tender and aching at the edges, more so at the center of its blue-black heart. The hurt was less when I didn’t touch it, but time and again my mind moved back to go over it, like a tongue on a sore tooth. In”
― Mary MacCracken, The Lost Children

“We all smile when the phone rings in the living room and he picks up the leaf of a nearby plant and announces, “Good morning, Howard Woodson here.”
― Mary MacCracken, The Memory of All That: A Love Story about Alzheimer's

“I could feel formality wrapping around me, covering me like plastic wrap on leftover roast.”
― Mary MacCracken, Lovey

“Yesterday, I was struggling and unfortunately was not very good at Cal’s “care planning” or “progress” meeting, which I am supposed to attend with some of the staff members at Kendal every three months or so.”
― Mary MacCracken, The Memory of All That: A Love Story about Alzheimer's