U.S. National Institutes of Health

Tangles: A Story about Alzheimer’s, My Mother, and Me, Sarah Leavitt, 2012

Courtesy Sarah Leavitt

In this revealing and moving graphic memoir, author and artist Sarah Leavitt chronicles her mother’s decline and eventual death from Alzheimer’s disease.

Tangles is broken into three vignettes that span from the time when her mother, the emotional center of the family, was at her prime, to the point when Leavitt and her family become caretakers to the artist’s mother due to her worsening condition. Tangles tells the story of a woman’s transformation from a vibrant, nature-loving intellectual into someone helpless and struggling to comprehend the world around her while her family deals with feelings of shock, fear, sorrow, and anger—and tenderness and love.

For more information about caring for someone with Alzheimer’s disease, visit MedlinePlus.

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