Includes bibliographical references.

In 1985 Cary Henderson, a history professor at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia, learned that he had Alzheimer's disease. As the disease progressed, Henderson was forced to leave teaching. Frustrated by his failing memory and his physical inability to write, he began to use a tape recorder as a creative outlet. The recorder became his confidant and his means for reaching out to communicate not only with his family but also with others afflicted with the disease, in describing his narrowing world -- the horror of being lost in his own home. the burden he felt he was becoming to his family, the inability to connect his thoughts -- Cary hoped to help other Alzheimer's patients and their caregivers cope with and understand the disease. Cary made countless hours of tapes, which his daughter, Jackie Henderson Main; his wife, Ruth; and award-winning Washington Post photographer Nancy Andrews edited. Andrews's compelling photographs of Cary and his family were made during the long editing process. The book opens with Ruth Henderson's moving introduction and concludes with an afterword by Sarah Vann Wyne, Clinical Trials Coordinator, Neurological Disorders Clinic, Duke University Medical Center.

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