A well-written memoir about life with a one=year old child and an eighty year old father with Alzheimer's. The author, a journalist for a local periodical in upstate New York, tells the story of living in the harsh winter after having moved from Arizona, being abandoned by her husband after only 2 mos of her father's coming, and dealing with the rising linguistic abilities of her daughter, and the lose of words and memories on her father's part.

"Daddy walks around now this way, dropping pieces of language behind him. The baby following picking them up." and she sums up her part of the story when she says "Writing gives me a sense of control. It has it's own special alchemy. I can make what is terrible turn beautiful." The story is poignant in its outlook, but surprisingly not a tear jerker. It is inspiring. ( )

Great book of forgetting and remembering-- records a year in which the author cared for both her Alzheimer dad and her one year old daughter. Comedy and sadness go hand in hand, lovely writing-- great scene where she thinks of people in Africa needing to be rescued during a flood.