For the Hood River News

Like many children or spouses of Alzheimer’s sufferers, local author Lauren Kessler was devastated by the awful disease that seemed to turn her mother into another person before claiming her life.

Kessler, an accomplished journalist, became a caregiver at an assisted living facility to learn more about the disease; then wrote a book, “Dancing with Rose,” offering an optimistic view on what Alzheimer’s has to teach us all.

The author will visit Hood River on Aug. 15 and will read, sell and sign her book Refreshments and tours are offered free to the public. (See details below.)

The two neighboring senior facilities on Hood River’s Heights will offer free refreshments and tours for visitors. Book sales will benefit the music therapy program at the assisted living/memory care facility Brookside Manor, to purchase iPods and docking stations, ceiling speakers and free concerts for seniors.

Kessler directs the graduate program in nonfiction at University of Oregon and is the author of eight books, including “Stubborn Twig,” the story of Masuo Yasui and other Japanese-American residents of Hood River County and their lives before, during and after the 1942 internment during World War II. “Stubborn Twig” received the 1994 Oregon Book Award for Literary Nonfiction.

Kessler will also attend the annual Garden Party for Brookside Manor residents and their families Friday night. At the private party, Kessler will read from “Dancing with Rose” and Providence will hand out free copies to its residents’ families which the author will sign. This event is particularly meaningful since some Hood River families attending this event are living with the impacts of Alzheimer’s disease firsthand.

Kessler’s book, “Dancing with Rose,” helps readers understand living with a condition that afflicts four and a half million people a year. In the book, Kessler becomes an entry-level caregiver at a residential Alzheimer’s residence she calls Maplewood. The book shares the grace, humor, and unexpected humanity that she found at the Alzheimer’s residence.

There, seniors in Kessler’s care shared the human side of what has been considered a dehumanizing condition and transformed her notions about the disease and “end-of-life” in general.