Nowish - A Memoir by Alice Mead

by Alice Mead
Published in 2009 by BookSurge
Subject: An autobiography of the cascade of events following my cancer in 2004 and my adjustments to life as a disabled person needing both care and housing—both humorous and serious.
ISBN 1-4292-1716-5, Library of Congress number is 2008910135.

Summary: Maine children’s author, Alice Mead, has published an adult memoir, her mid-life story about cancer, divorce, and neurological disease, and her search for care and a place to call home. Abruptly, at age fifty four, Mead finds herself forced to move to the unregulated world of assisted living, thirty five years too early. Confused, ill, and isolated, Mead scrambles to find meaning in the underworld that is eldercare in modern America. As millions of baby boomers struggle to find care for aging parents, this eye-opening, first-hand account will be invaluable in sorting out the realities they will face. Nowish provides a timely, up-close look of the life of the very old. Reflective, sad, ironic, and funny, Mead provides a unique voice in her stubborn struggle to find a home that reflects her life and values. For doctors, care-givers, social workers and families, this is a rare chance to experience geriatric life from the inside out.

Thousands of Americans will soon be confronted with the chaotic, costly, patchwork world of elder care. Despite her ever-increasing neurological limitations, Mead exposes the ironies, neglect, isolation and humor of this haphazard world, as well as the fragmentation of our healthcare system. As her strength fails, she is confined to a wheelchair, making independence and integrity ever more difficult to achieve.

Since 1994, Mead has published a wide variety of children’s novels, mostly with Farrar, Straus and Giroux, about kids on the margins of society. Her best-selling Junebug series has been featured on Oprah’s best books for kids. She has long been a human rights advocate for children and the people of Kosovo.