Losing Us: A Dementia Caregiver's Journey

Losing Us: A Dementia Caregiver’s Journey, is a candid, compassionate and sometimes humorous memoir of Author Rosella Leslie’s heartbreaking struggles and triumphs during her twelve years as her husband’s primary caregiver. It is also an informal guide to dementia caregiving, including links to helpful resources for caregivers, their friends, families and communities. The poems that begin and end each chapter capture the frustration and sorrow of her husband’s ever-shifting cognitive abilities and the emotional rollercoaster Leslie rides, rising to heights of acceptance, joy and resolve, then plunging to valleys of guilt, doubt and despair. She urges caregivers to accept dark thoughts and harsh feelings as a natural response to being in an impossible situation, and to keep putting one foot in front of the other as they move toward the faint light of hope that shines at the end of this very dark tunnel.

Rosella M. Leslie is the author of The Cougar Lady: Legendary Trapper of Sechelt Inlet, The Federov Legacy, Drift Child and The Goat Lady’s Daughter. She has co-authored Stain Upon the Sea: West Coast Salmon Farming, Bright Seas, Pioneer Spirits: The History of the Sunshine Coast, Updated and Revised and Sea Silver: Inside British Columbia's Salmon-Farming Industry. Her awards for her excellence in writing include winner of the Federation of BC Writer’s Best of BC Writing Competition (1986), co-winner of third prize for the BC Historical Writing Competition (1997); co-winner of the Roderick Haig-Brown Regional Prize (2004); and honourable mention in Prairie Fire’s 2016 fiction contest.

A founding member of the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Written Arts, Rosella is a member of The Writers’ Union and a leader of the Memory Café in Sechelt. You can connect with her through her websites www.rosellaleslie.com and www.quintessentialwriters.com.

When she’s not writing, you can find Rosella hiking, running, and gardening in Halfmoon Bay, BC with Brian and his beautiful golden retriever, Gracie.