Top 10 Alzheimer's Caregiving Sites for the Year 2000

Poems, Prayers, and Promises
by Brenda Race
http://www.geocities.com/brace03/Mom.html
1st Place for the Year 2000
Brenda cared for her mother at home until she entered a nursing home
in December 1998. She was still with her every chance she got until
her mother died about a year later in December 1999. Brenda's site,
Poems, Prayers, and Promises, is unique in that it gives a positive
look at the nursing home experience, through her poetry and photos.
Brenda has collected her thoughts, memories, photos, and poems from
all stages in her journey with her mother and Alzheimer's, and she
has illustrated them all so wonderfully with beautiful backgrounds
and graphics. She also has included some poems that Dorothy Womack
wrote for her during her times of grief after her mother's entrance
into the nursing home and as the disease progressed, taking more and
more of her mother from her. It's a wonderful site, full of
beautiful poetry, wonderful photos and graphics, and tremendous
spiritual insight.

Passage into Paradise
by Dorothy Womack
http://www.geocities.com/womack47/passage.html
2nd Place for the Year 2000
Dorothy's book, Passage into Paradise, is her caregiving journal kept
during her time as caregiver for her mother. It is a huge book--
around 200 pages printed out, presented as 25 pages online-- but it
is one that the reader will "not want to put down" until finished.
Dorothy has given us not only her mother's journey with Alzheimer's,
but also the thoughts, feelings, doubts, and pain of a caregiver--
even one who is a woman of great faith. Dorothy's moving poetry and
beautiful photos of her mother are also included, and soft nature and
angel backgrounds help make the book a pleasure to read. Passage into
Paradise has been awarded the Alzheimer's Site of the Week at
About.com and a Suite101 Featured Online Book. Dorothy is a writer
for Today's Caregiver (Caregiver.com), Empowering Caregivers, and her
poems and articles are featured at several other Web sites, including
Alzheimer's Outreach, A Year to Remember, and Poetry.com.

Caregiver's Haven
by Nancy Walker
http://www.nhisgarden.com/caregivers/entrance.html
3rd Place for the Year 2000
Nancy is nurse who has 22 years of experience with caring for the
elderly and dementia patients. She has taken on Alzheimer's as her
cause and as well as providing information about AD, she has created
a true haven for weary caregivers and early-onset patients alike.
Her site features a Poetry Niche, which includes the poems of Dorothy
Womack, Brenda Race, Carolyn Haynali, Tim Brennan and others, and a
Gallery which displays paintings by Dorothy Womack's mother and some
selections from the Brace Alzheimer's Research Art Gallery. Nancy's
wish for us as we visit her site is "To sit back and find a relaxing
site filled with love, peace and maybe a laugh or too", and she
is doing a wonderful job at reaching that goal. Despite her former
server's losing her Web site files a few months ago, Nancy has
restored her site and continued to develop it even, amazing us with
all she accomplishes in addition to her busy career.

Alzheimer's Outreach
by Marsha Penington
http://www.zarcrom.com/users/alzheimers/
4th Place for the Year 2000
Another totally amazing site, one that inspires awe and wonder every
time we visit, is Marsha's (aka Tay) Alzheimer's Outreach. Her
informational directories on Alzheimer's, other dementias, and
caregiving issues includes around 250 full-text documents. There is
a poetry gallery full of poetry by Steven Stoker, Jerry Ham, Brenda
Race, and Dorothy Womack, and Marsha has provided Web space for the
various works of other caregivers and Alzheimer's patients throughout
her site. At the Alzheimer's Outreach site, family caregivers and
patients alike have shared their photos, memories, memorials,
thoughts, and the list goes on and on. There is so much this site
offers, it's difficult to even begin to describe it all. Marsha's own
story of her mother's Alzheimer's, along with beautifully designed
backgrounds and graphics by Marsha herself, add a personal touch and
intensify the sense of awe we feel as we visit this wonderful site.
Futhermore, Alzheimer's Outreach is also the large and very
active local community service/support group that is coordinated by
Marsha in the area where she lives. Locally through this group and
around the world via the Internet, Marsha's Alzheimer's Outreach is
for so many a most excellent source of information and support at all
stages of the Alzheimer's/caregiving journey.


Though I will try to post a revision within the next month that will
include reviews of the remaining Top 10 Alzheimer's/Caregiving Sites
for the Year 2000, at present I am listing them as follows:

Mary's Place - http://home.att.net/~mari5113/wsb/h
tml/view.cgi-home.html-.html - 5th Place
Alzwell - http://www.webcom.com/~susan/welcome.html - 6th Place
AnnaMarie's Place - http://www.jacksonville.net/~bird222 - 7th Place
ElderCare Online - http://www.ec-online.net/ - 8th Place
Through His Eyes - http://www.nhisgarden.com/his_eyes/entrance.html -
9th Place
Diana McGowin's Home Page - http://hometown.aol.co
m/lilauthor1/index.html - 10th Place

Congratulations to all and thank you for sharing!

... and within three hours we will have four winning sites for
January 2001 ...

Brenda Parris Sibley
TopADCaregivingSites at Yahoo! Groups
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TopADCaregivingSites/
Top Alzheimer's/Caregiving Sites at TopSites.com
http://new.topsitelists.com/bestsites/bpsibley/
A Year to Remember
http://www.zarcrom.com/users/yeartorem/