“Who would want to read a book about me?”

That was the question my Mom asked me a couple of years ago when I first mentioned that I was going to write a book about her. As it turns out, a lot of people would read a book about my Mom. Since the book was published on February 1st of this year, Being My Mom’s Mom has sold almost one-thousand copies. I’m so excited I could burst!

We are ten days into National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month, and my pledge to do at least one thing per day to honor my Mom and bring more awareness to this disease. I’m stunned by all the things I’ve been able to accomplish thus far. I’ve posted a short video clip about my Mom on Facebook and Amazon, joined ten Alzheimer’s Awareness groups on Facebook and Pinterest, donated five books and met with five librarians in DC and three MD counties and booked a guest spot on a radio show and a book club discussion brunch for December. I’ve also worn purple, the color of the Alzheimer’s awareness, five times this month. I’m hopeful that these first ten days are only the start to what I can accomplish before this month ends. 

The highlight of the ten days thus far was my appearance at Arden Courts Memory Care Community in Silver Spring MD (see pic below). It is a wonderful community for Dementia patients, beautifully organized into four small neighborhoods. The talk I gave there this past Wednesday was awesome, and my amazing host Julie Boone-Roth purchased 25 books in advance as gifts for attendees, completing my largest sale to one group to that point. I felt so blessed and embraced by the group, all of us connected by this horrible disease. While all that was fabulous, it wasn’t even the best part of the night. The best part was truly a miracle in my mind. A woman in attendance Wednesday night who called my presentation “captivating”, hired me on the spot to be the keynote speaker for her staff’s holiday and recognition party in December. That opportunity alone is great, but she also purchased 50 signed copies of my book as one of the holiday gifts for her staff members. I was simply blown away!! 

I thought of my Mom all the way home from Silver Spring that night, because the rest of my pledge for November is to donate 50% of my book sales to the Alzheimer’s Association in honor of my Mom. The sale of those 50 books alone will help to ensure that the amount of my donation to help find a cure for Alzheimer’s will be a great one!! It doesn’t even matter that my Mom won’t remember any of the things I’m doing this month to honor her, I know for a fact that she would be very proud!! Love you Mom!

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