Moments of Dawn: A Poetic Memoir of Love & Family, Affliction & Affirmation

Critically acclaimed author Nancy Smiler Levinson has written a beautiful, wise, and honest book, taking us on an emotional journey of a woman caring for a husband with Alzheimer’s disease.
She began writing this poetic memoir in 2004, after he was diagnosed, and continued following the course of their lives.
In the midst of maintaining a “new normal” together, she battled her own disease of breast cancer. She also lost her aging mother, who ironically, possessed an amazing memory to her end.
Of her husband, the author recalls at the start: “Once you were a physician, mending the lives of others, but there are no cures for you / Once you were a teacher, generously sharing your knowledge, but you are the small student again, needing the most rudimentary of lessons / Once you were a sailor adept with a boat and its tangled riggings. . . now there is no lifesaving float to be tossed, no inlet to tie up to. Denial is your survival for a while.”
Moments of Dawn, with its instances of anguish and despair, also tenders many blessings and moments of levity.
Nancy Smiler Levinson offers a tribute and celebration of family, friends, and courage. Her diary reaches a crescendo of empowerment, enlightenment, and especially love that becomes every caregiver’s universal song.