TRAVELS IN PLACE: A Journey Into Memory Loss by Christiane W. Griffin-Wehr

A STORY OF LIFE & DEATH WITH DIGNITY

This book is truly a love story begging to be told.

Travels in Place by Christiane W. Griffin-Wehr launches you into the redemptive revelation that sometimes going deeper into relationship is more important than traveling farther.

Travels in Place powerfully transforms a journey of wrenching loss and emptiness into a celebration of hearts fulfilled.

Travels in Place dares you to bridge the vast distances between caregiver and care-receiver by simply holding the other’s hands firmly across the chasm.

A Poignant Read for Caregivers and Health Professionals Caring for the Elderly
This book will make you laugh out loud one minute and cry another.  Travels in Place by Christiane W. Griffin-Wehr is the tender memoir of a daughter’s reflections as she loses her beloved mother to dementia. The work promotes the radical notion that some things in life are not ours to fix–which does not mean that we either run from them or stand helpless amid decline and suffering. Faced with the often heartbreaking, sometimes humorous situations of patients suffering severe memory loss and dementia, the author urges us to leave fruitless efforts to go farther and do more and instead to trust ourselves to be more.
    Through her story, the author leads us to understand that as caregivers to patients with Alzheimer’s-like diseases, we may not be able to cure the symptoms, restore past or future, or even always make the present bearable. But we can learn to go deeper into ourselves, explore the evolving relationship more thoroughly where we are, and openly embrace its moments with honesty and love. Thus will the reader find the power to transform even these difficult travels into a life-giving journey. 

  “Travels in Place is a wise and helpful book about a difficult and yet radiant journey through Alzheimer's. The author leads us through the profound challenge of becoming her mother's caregiver. She learns that medical expertise is not the helper she needs. Instead, humor, an open mind, and a deep heart are the tools of the task before her.  This is one book about the Alzheimer's journey that you won't be afraid to read.”   – Frena Gray-Davidson, Author of Alzheimer’s 911

“Somehow, Chris Griffin-Wehr has managed to make a wrenching end-of-life story into a gripping, tender, poetic clarification of what death-with-dignity really means. ...this book should become required reading for any aspiring or practicing health professional who cares for the elderly and their families.” – Hilliard Jason, MD, EdD, Clinical Professor, Family Medicine, University of Colorado Denver

“This is a sad, funny, complex, and very wise book.”      
– Jane Pincus, Co-author of Our Bodies, Ourselves

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Born in 1950 in Hamburg, Germany, Christiane W. Griffin-Wehr’s journey includes teenage motherhood, a Master’s degree in religious studies, a twenty-year career in university administration, a love of horses, and long-distance running. Newly retired, Chris and her husband Paul celebrate life in Colorado and Maine amid family, friends, and Nature. Visit her on her website: www.sofiaserve.com