Kensington Caregiver Book Club: Author Talk with Annette J. Wick

As a care partner for the last six years of her mother’s life, Annette Januzzi Wick often found herself at odds. Should she push mother, Jean, to maintain who she was or should Annette find a way to let go of these expectations?  I’ll Have Some of Yours: What my mother taught me about dementia, cookies, music, the outside, and her life inside a care home is a homage to Jean’s life in the moment and to the valuable lessons learned at the side of someone experiencing significant memory loss. In it, Annette also observes how the care community where Jean lived formed a family to lift her mother and help her thrive as she could. 

Annette Januzzi Wick longs to find the perfect care home for her proud, Italian American mother, who is slipping further into dementia. In her memoir, Annette shares gripping truths about the mistakes she makes before ultimately finding a place where her mother develops a crush, heckles an Elvis impersonator, and magically bonds with her daughter through Frank Sinatra’s songs. Whether she’s breaking up a fight between her mother and the Easter Bunny, advocating for her mother to avoid a tracheotomy, or struggling to duplicate her mother’s cookie recipes, Annette balances the trials with the triumphs of being a daughter—and caregiver. But can she and her mother love without memory—or regret? I’ll Have Some of Yours is for anyone who longs to move past being a caregiver to find a deeply human and humane connection with someone you love.