The Long Run: Meditations on Marriage, Dementia, Caregiving, and Loss

by Richard J. Sherry

A memoir of and reflections on the decline and death of a partner with dementia. The emotional, relational, and practical challenges of caregiving over several years.

122 pages, Paperback

Published July 3, 2020

About the author

Dr. Richard Sherry is the author of the Baker Mischief series, including A Month of Sundays (2022) ; Mondays, Mondays (2023) ; and First Tuesday 2024. The political thriller series introduces retired political science professor Dr. Ed Baker, determined to open up American politics to daylight. He is almost always up against both the law and forces attempting to conceal their influence on American life. In A Month of Sundays, Baker uncovers who owns senators up for election in 2020 and releases their emails to the voters in their states. In Mondays, Mondays, he reveals a "voting bloc" in the Supreme Court and who is influencing them. In First Tuesday, Baker and his former students look at the influential forces behind the 2024 presidential election, with surprising results.

Richard released a memoir in 2020, The Long Run: Meditations on Marriage, Dementia, Caregiving, and Loss (2020), about his first wife's illness and death.

Richard is a retired college professor and administrator. He resides in Minnesota and winters in Arizona with his wife Marjorie Mathison Hance, author of the North lakes Murder Mystery Series.

Reviews

[Patricia Paulson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dr. Sherry writes a thoughtful, vulnerable and loving glimpse into his experience of caring for his wife's painfully long journey through dementia. His selfless approach to every aspect of a long term love that must morph and change as new dimensions arise provides support and understanding to all who will face their own journeys or want to support others who are walking alongside a love one who is.

[Ruthanna Corbitt · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Journey of Hope

Vulnerable but not sentimental, Dr. Sherry gives us a privileged glimpse into the horror and hope of caring for a loved one on the journey through dementia. A must read for couples, families, caregivers, friends.

[Ann Coker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Richard Sherry is a retired professor of English, so he writes with good style. Rather than writing in chronological order, Sherry uses topics to tell the story of his experience of caring for his wife, Candy, who had aphasia, a form of dementia, over a span of 11 years. Sherry's story shows love and respect but he also tells the practical and raw times. I recommend it highly as a good story as well as information about caregiving.