Seeking Clarity in the Labyrinth: A Daughter's Journey Through Alzheimer's

by Jessica Stokes

Do you need help navigating despair and frustration and seeking a different path of acceptance? This book is not for everyone. It is brutally honest. Glossing over the despair of Alzheimer’s Disease serves no one. This book is for those willing to explore the stages of Alzheimer’s and accept the uphill journey of navigating the loss of a loved one with dementia. Not only that, but this book also teaches you how One daughter's journey sets the scene for a raw 13-year transformation to acceptance. The Labyrinth serves as a tool of healing. This book helps explore ways to see and honor your loved one even when you feel lost on the path. Seeking Clarity in the Labyrinth, A Daugther’s Journey Through Alzheimer’s is thoughtful, honest, uplifting, and tender. You will be transformed. For a limited time, download this remarkable book at a temporary introductory price!

138 pages, Kindle Edition

Published January 10, 2023

About the author

Jessica Goldmuntz Stokes has supported multiple family members with Alzheimer’s, dementia, and Parkinson’s. Always seeking her own growth and truth, she teaches and performs belly dance, and practices Therapeutic Touch and Reiki. As an avid labyrinth-walker, and Trained Veriditas Labyrinth Facilitator, she provides Labyrinth workshops for anyone experiencing loss. She is the co-owner of a janitorial business in the Denver Metro area.

She is a daughter, a mom, a wife, and a caregiver living in Denver, Colorado. This is her first book.

Reviews

[Mindy Hanson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a story I simply could not put down. The laughter and the tears were spontaneous and unexpected but the book elicited genuine emotion and empathy. If you love someone with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson's you owe it to your loved one to give yourself the gift or reading this book

[Literary Titan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Losing a loved one to Alzheimer's is a journey without a roadmap. It can be mercifully brief or agonizingly prolonged, with each family's path uniquely different yet heartbreakingly similar. In her deeply personal and cathartic book, Jessica Stokes delves into her family's experience with this disease, often termed "the longest goodbye," as she witnessed her mother's cognitive decline. The narrative highlights how Alzheimer's impacts not only the diagnosed individual but also the entire family, necessitating extensive care and adjustments. This story will resonate with many.

Seeking Clarity in the Labyrinth: A Daughter’s Journey Through Alzheimer's is a poignant memoir by Jessica Stokes that serves as both a personal account and a therapeutic exploration. Beyond detailing her family's 13-year journey with her mother's Alzheimer's, the book delves into themes of grief, balance, acceptance, change, and, above all, love. Stokes recounts the gradual loss of her mother, sharing how she learned to embrace the evolving versions of her. While not always consistent in this endeavor, she navigated the situation with resilience, steering through unwanted yet unavoidable challenges.

The narrative, though mostly linear, mirrors the workings of memory, where a small detail can spark an entirely new recollection. The book also carries a spiritual undertone, exploring concepts of life, death, and the possibility of an afterlife. The mindful and intentional journey of the labyrinth—both as a concept and through specific examples worldwide—was a constant presence for Stokes and her family, eventually becoming a metaphor for their experience. The labyrinth in her parents' backyard, lovingly constructed by family members, symbolizes a sanctuary, providing peace within a convoluted path. Stokes revisits this imagery throughout her book, using it to illustrate the emotions accompanying the disease's progression.

This book will be painfully familiar to those who have lost or are in the process of losing a loved one to Alzheimer's. It offers comfort in a shared experience. Despite its deeply personal nature, Stokes' story resonates universally. Even readers without direct experience with Alzheimer's may relate to the gradual loss of a parent. Stokes writes with clarity and frankness, delivering a story that is heartfelt and heartbreaking.

[Frankie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Praise for Jessica Stokes giving us an intimate look at heart during her mom’s 13 year journey with Alzheimer’s. As a daughter-in-law to a beautiful matriarch diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2022, this book was published just when I needed it. This book illustrates how love and loss are so tightly woven together as Jessica helps her parents navigate this disease. Her story is honest and hopeful. It is both painful and triumphant. Living with this disease is disconcerting—life altering. In a world where more and more of us are living longer lives, it seems Alzheimer’s and other diseases of the mind may be affecting more and more of us as we age–at least until medicine finds better ways to treat it. Until those medical marvels come to rescue, Jessica’s book reminds us that the hurricane of pain and emotions that is dealing with this disease, it also contains within it, the eye of the storm, where we can hold space for seemingly disparate emotions. That it is okay to feel what you are feeling. That we can both lament & celebrate the life once was and the changing person that lives in this present moment. She reminds us of the beauty found in the micro-moments of clarity and understanding shared with family. She shines a light on the humanity and beauty found in this journey, as our parents navigate their final days. Jessica gently prompts us to “see” the little signs of love & blessing that Nature & Universe send to remind us that we are going to survive this. I highly recommend this book to all who are helping a soul who is living with Alzheimer’s or anyone who is navigating a loved one’s final moments.

[Judy Granlee-Gates · Rating 5 out of 5]

A stirring and poignant tale everyone can relate to. The prologue sets the tone in this book for anyone who has lost a beloved parent, and battled the demon that is Alzheimer's, that seemingly no one can defeat. So many have experienced this journey, and Jessica weaves a beautifully written detail of her families' experience. It is touching, funny, sad and sweet. An excellent read and very helpful for anyone going through the same.

[Sherry · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moving and raw. Jessica takes us through the challenges, pain, and unforgettable moments during her mother’s 13 years living with Alzheimer’s. I felt like I was right by her side during this emotional journey and got to know her wonderful mother in the process. She tells her story with gentleness, pragmatism, and laughter. I learned a tremendous amount about the real toll Alzheimer’s takes on the whole family and how one woman made every moment with her mother count.

[Crystal Mechsner Grenier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jessica's story of shifts and turns during the reality of her mom's disease took me on a path of love, laughter, honor, vulnerability, and a whole lot of patience! I felt her paralleled emotions of losing a mother, bringing so many things into perspective to help heal. A must read for anyone navigating this disease, Jess dives into some important steps to take so you are not lost on your walk to seek clarity.

[Adrienne · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book isn't just a lifeline for those who are slowly losing (or have already lost) their loved one(s) to Alzheimer's or dementia, it's a touching tribute to the love and joy that can survive even that heartbreaking journey, and that can blossom in its wake. If you or someone you know is lost in the labyrinth of that journey, please share this map back to center with them immediately!

[Marie Dimenna · Rating 5 out of 5]

Seeking Clarity in the Labyrinth is a heart warming story about a family loving each other during tough times. It also discusses how the Labyrinth is weaved into the author's life. Do yourself a favor and pick up a copy today.

[Chriscb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jessica writes a moving story of her family's journey through her mom's Alzheimer's and how walking the labyrinth becomes a tool to cope with the winding road of loss this disease brings with it. Touching, lovingly told.

[Damian Schrecongost · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

[Leigh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Coping with a parent with Alzheimer’s is a very lonely journey. This book really spoke to me. I found it so relatable in the ways the author encountered the odd and sometimes frustrating or even disturbing parts of this terrible illness. I experienced so many of the same things & felt like this was the first book I’ve read on Alzheimer’s that I could connect with. Though I’m an avid reader, I’ve struggled to be able to read anything fiction or nonfiction about Alzheimer’s. It’s hard to read these heavy books when you’re smack in the middle of it. This book was much more relatable & I couldn’t put it down. Perhaps it is the perspective of the daughter losing her mom (my same situation) that just made it much more relevant for me. If you know someone struggling through the difficulty of a family member with Alzheimer’s, this is a must read.