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Reviews
“Melting Ice ~ Shifting Sand is a love story. Written in two voices, it is the story of finding meaning and balance and finding a way back to each other in a constantly shifting world. It should be required reading for everyone who is caring for, living with, and loving someone who has dementia. Marge and Donald’s story is both brave and inspiring.”
—MARTHA MCLOUGHLIN, Program Director, Homestead (Memory Care), Granite Ledges of Concord
“Woven through with poetic images and illuminated by heartbreakingly comic stories of everyday life on the Alzheimer’s journey, this blended narrative provides a rare glimpse into the minds and hearts of both an Alzheimer’s patient and his caregiver as this husband and wife team navigate plaque-filled pathways toward an unknown future. Offering both hard-earned wisdom and grace-filled acceptance, Marge and Donald teach us how to walk this labyrinth, which leads inevitably toward a center filled with both death and the promise of resurrection.”
SHIRIN MCARTHUR, Executive Editor, Communication Clarified
“Pilgrimage on Ice and Sand is the continuing journey of a couple through Alzheimer's disease. The author wrote her first book, Melting Ice - Shifting Sand, in alternating chapters with her ailing husband. Now that his disease has progressed, she writes in a single voice, while continuing to include his experience as much as she can. This is a spiritual memoir, both candid and uplifting, a map for others in this heartbreaking situation. Pilgrimage is a powerful, beautiful love story that is not to be missed.”
DIANNE HATHAWAY, Director, Goffstown Public Library, Goffstown, NH
On Beyond Ice and Sand: “I was blessed enough to be one of the nurses who cared For Donald during his time at Granite Ledges of Concord, and I know from personal experience the ups-and-downs that Marge faced during that part of their journey. I found myself laughing through my tears as I recalled some of the challenges and hes, hilarity that were part of this story.”
TAMMY MANTEL, LPN, Concord Regional Visiting Nurse Association Hospice
On Beyond Ice and Sand: “Marge Burke writes with clarity and honesty about her beloved husband, Donald’s death from Alzheimer’s and the beginning of her new life without him. Her account is filled with hard earned wisdom and grace as she details her struggles.”
THE VERY REV. JOHN P. STREIT, JR., Dean Emeritus, Cathedral of St. Paul, Boston.
“[Beyond Ice and Sand] is a story of trust – in caregiving, in family and friends, and most of all in herself.”
TOM CLOW, Weare Area Writers Guild
“Marge teaches us what hope sounds like, looks like, when there is no cure, with a sharp eye and heart open to healing messages.”
MARYLIN EASTWOOD, lay participant in pastoral care, Church of the Good Shepherd, Watertown, MA
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