Love and Forgetting • A Husband and Wife`s journey through dementia
By Julie Macfie Sobol & Ken Sobol
257 pages • ISBN 978-1-927583-18-0
Lewy Body Disease – a form of dementia second only to Alzheimer`s in numbers, yet few of us have ever heard its name.
It takes courage to face serious illness, whether it is you who are sick or someone you love. This is the story of two courageous people, Julie and Ken Sobol. Julie and Ken were writing partners, so it was natural that when Ken become caught up in the frightening and fatal fog of Lewy Body Disease, they decided to write about their experience with the disease together.
This is the story not just of a devastating illness, but of an amazing relationship. As Ken`s disease progresses and his symptoms worsen, his voice on the page dwindles. Julie continues the narration, sharing her sadness, frustration, and attempts to find the best care for her husband. Their chronicling of the ravages wrought by LBD is intelligent, insightful, enlightening, and often funny. It is –at heart- a love story.
Julie Macfie Sobol and Ken Sobol met at Ohio`s Oberlin College in 1958. After marrying and living in New York, London, and Los Angeles, they and their three children moved to Canada. There Ken continued his Emmy-winning writing career with TVOntario and other networks, mainly in children`s televition and TV documentaries. He also authored several children`s books.
Julie is a painter and musician who has worked as a piano teacher and accompanist. Her paintings hang in Canada, The U.S., and England. Julie and Ken began writing together for magazines in the 1980s, and then went on to write two books of social history: Looking for Lake Erie and Lake Erie: A Pictorial History. Love and Forgetting began as a magazine piece about Lewy Body Dementia after Ken was diagnosed with the disease in 2007.
The couple was forced to find new ways of living and writing together as Ken`s symptoms deepened, their understanding of the disease increased, and the article morphed into a book. Ken died in August of 2010, just three weeks after moving into a long-term care facilities. Julie, now a grandmother if six, continues to make her home in Toronto.
