For seventeen years, Anne-Marie Erickson was side-by-side with her husband, Dick, as his dementia symptoms worsened. Throughout the process, Erickson wrote essays in an attempt to make sense of what was happening. Those essays are now shared in the new memoir In the Evening We'll Dance.
"We were married 42 years," says Erickson of her relationship with her husband. "He was a very inquisitive, athletic, funny, well-read, engaged human being. And we had a conversation that never ended even during his dementia."
With no cure for dementia, grief was ongoing. Despite her husband's symptoms, his words (either spoken or written) found their way into the work. "I had no idea I was writing a book," says Erickson. "I used Dick's words as the springboard into the essays... even the title of the book is something that Dick said to me... I began to feel like I needed to share these ideas and these experiences with other people who are perhaps going through a loved one's dementia."
In the Evening We'll Dance is available through the author's website, Holy Cow! Press, and via Amazon. The book is available at various bookstores as well. Erickson will be at Zenith Bookstore for a conversation on September 25th.
Minnesota Reads is produced at The North 103.3 with funding provided in part by the Minnesota Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
