January 2002 Site of the Month
Passage into Paradise, by Dorothy Womack
http://www.geocities.com/womack47/passage.html

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. And hot
off the press, Dorothy's books: Passage into Paradise, Alzheimer's
Angels, and Sacred Sentiments, have all just been published in the
past couple of months (August and September 2002) by Writer's Club
Press/iUniverse.com.

~~~ Dorothy has amazed me publishing these three books withing a
couple of months (or was it just one month, Dorothy?), so I'm going
to include my reviews of her three books in this newsletter. ~~~

Passage into Paradise, by Dorothy Womack. San Jose: Writer's
Club Press/iUniverse, 2002. ISBN: 0595249264

You may have enjoyed Dorothy Womack's poetry in her Reflections on
Marsha Penington's Alzheimer's Outreach, at A Window on My
Mind, and in Alzheimer's Poetry at A Year to Remember. You may
have read her articles in Caregiving Today, and you may have enjoyed
visiting Dorothy's Web sites. Now published as a book, her
experience as her mother's caregiver is shared in Passage into
Paradise. I was amazed as I read her story, which began years before
mine, and continued several months after my mother died. I do not
think I could have handled caring for my mother as Dorothy and her
husband did. Long after her mother became bedridden and incontinent,
still they cared for her at home. Dorothy's honesty in this book,
expressing all the emotional turmoil she was going through, combined
with her strong faith shining through, make this a story we become
caught up in. I found I just had to read it all at one sitting, and
it is a story that I will want to read again and again.

Alzheimer's Angels: a Compilation of Poetry Honoring Caregivers and
Victims of Alzheimer's Disease, by Dorothy Womack. San Jose:
Writer's Club Press/iUniverse, 2002. ISBN: 0595245501

Dorothy Womack's poems have reached across the Internet and touched
so many people affected by Alzheimer's disease. She has bravely
shared her own story, in poem and prose, and she has reached out to
others who are living in the pain that she knew as caregiver for her
mother. Other children of Alzheimer's parents, spouses of people
with this disease, and early onset victims of AD have been honored by
Dorothy's touching poems, which have spoken to their hearts and
conforted them. In her 334 page book, Alzheimer's Angels, Dorothy
has shared over 200 of her poems, including some for Sept. 11, 2001
victims as well as for victims of Alzheimer's. Dorothy's gift has
ministered to me as well, speaking to me as from my mother, in her
poems "Most of All" and "The Other Side of Midnight". Dorothy's
poem "In the Company of Orphans" tells our story, of motherless
daughters who have found one another and become sisters. I am
grateful to God for Dorothy's influence in my life, proud to have
become her "sister" and friend. I highly recommend
Alzheimer's Angels, and I know that the verses contained within it
will minister to others, bringing healing tears, and giving comfort
and strength for the Alzheimer's journey.

Sacred Sentiments: Inspirational Poetry Honoring the Trinity, by
Dorothy Womack. San Jose: Writer's Club Press/iUniverse, 2002. ISBN:
0595247563

Dorothy Womack's inspirational poetry speaks of the trials and pain
of life, yet it is encouraging and positive, finding strength and
purpose in a strong faith in God. Her poems are born of suffering,
of pain, of sorrow in the passages of life, and yet, it is in these
trials that she has grown and has found purpose in helping others.
In one of her poems, she says, "I am grateful for what I learned
through trials, although it tore the heart from me. Because my
sharing brings such smiles to those who suffer silently." In her 276
page book, Sacred Sentiments, Dorothy shares over 250 poems, written
in over thirty years of her life. In these days of tragedies all
around us, acts of terrorism, and killings that we find so hard to
understand, we all need something positive, some hope for this life
and beyond. Dorothy's book gives us hope, speaking peace and comfort
to us through her poems: "And we'll never falter by choosing God's
way, for He'll go before us and ever will stay. Amid all our crises
our worries and fears, He comes forth to heal us, to wipe away tears."

~~~

Congratulations Dorothy on the publication of these three wonderful
books!!!

Best wishes & God bless you all!

Brenda
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Brenda Parris Sibley
A Year to Remember... http://www.zarcrom.com/users/yeartorem/
author of Waiting for the Morning, iUniverse.com ISBN:0-595-18782-X
http://www.iuniverse.com/bookstore/book_detail.asp?isbn=0%2D595%
2D18782%2DX
http://bpsibley.150m.com/wmf.html
Owner, Top Alzheimer's/Caregiving Sites
http://new.topsitelists.com/bestsites/bpsibley/topsites.html
Editor, Alzheimer's Disease Topic at Suite101
http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/alzheimers_disease
Editor, Top Alzheimer's/Caregiving Sites Community at iUniverse
http://communities.iuniverse.com/bin/circle.asp?circleid=6622
Owner, Top Alzheimer's/Caregiving Sites Newsletter
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TopADCaregivingSites/
Owner, Alzheimer's/Caregiving Book Reviews
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ADbkreviews/
Easy, Affordable Community Education available at Suite101 University:
http://www.suite101.com/suiteu/default.cfm/261435
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