Painted Diaries: A Mother and Daughter's Exprience through Alzheimer's [Hardcover]

Kim Howes Zabbia (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 24, 1996

The powerful story of a mother and daughter writing and painting through Alzheimer's.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

In 1985, Lou Howes learned she was in the early stages of Alzheimer's, a disease that indiscriminately strips away memory and ability. At 61, Howes was a gregarious small-town reporter in Louisiana and mother of three grown children, a woman who could light matches with shots from a .22. Her daughter Kim Howes Zabbia weaves together journals kept by Howes and her own journey as an artist as they embark on an eight-year odyssey through the disintegration of a mind. This account of how their whole family coped (or didn't cope) is by turns poignant, funny, frightening, and ingenious.

From Library Journal

Lou Howes, a newspaper reporter, kept a diary until Alzheimer's disease robbed her of her ability to read and write. Her daughter, Kim Howes Zabbia, a teacher, writer, and artist, took excerpts from this journal and interspersed them with her own writings and paintings to provide a moving, intimate portrait of a family coping with what Lou called "Al, Mrs. Zheimer's son." We feel Lou's pain and frustration as she tries to cope with her loss of memory and mourn the slow transformation of a once witty and vibrant woman into a shell of her former self. During the course of her mother's illness, Zabbia began work on her master's in fine arts at Louisiana State University. Her art eventually became a means of expressing the emotional bond between mother and daughter, a psychological bridge created by her venture into the surreal world of Alzheimer's disease. Told with love, humor, and sensitivity, this eloquent account is recommended for all collections.?Jodith Janes, Cleveland Clinic Fdn., Ohio
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 224 pages
• Publisher: Fairview Press (September 24, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 157749007X
• ISBN-13: 978-1577490074
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,034,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Touching and Creative Family Chronicle of Alzheimer's, March 3, 2002

By 

Brenda Parris Sibley (Decatur, AL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Painted Diaries: A Mother and Daughter's Exprience through Alzheimer's (Hardcover)

Covering a period of eleven years (1982-1993) in the life of one family, this touching book chronicles one woman's Alzheimer's journey through her own journal entries, and the paintings and journal of her daughter, Kim. Treasured family photos are included, for example there is, made in 1982, is a group picture of four generations, including Kim's mother, a former journalist, her grandmother, and her daughter at nine weeks old. There is even a photo of the mother's declining writing, as she wrote "I love you" in the fall of 1989. As the years passed and the disease progressed in her mother's life, Kim, a teacher, artist, and graduate student working on a degree in art, was influenced by the disease in her paintings. Kim's paintings changed as she explored her family's emotional struggle and visualized her mother's feelings in her work. Kim and her mother's journey was aided by their creativity in helping them cope, understand, and express the changes brought about by what her mother called "Al, Mrs. Zheimer's son".

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Best book ever, January 26, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Painted Diaries: A Mother and Daughter's Exprience through Alzheimer's (Hardcover)

Painted Diaries is one of the best books I have ever read! I could not stop reading it. It is a great book for families how are expeirenceing the painful Alzhiemers disease. I STRONGLY reacomind it!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Wonderful Resource!, March 11, 2000

By 

Tim "Theologator" (Belleview, Florida) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Painted Diaries: A Mother and Daughter's Exprience through Alzheimer's (Hardcover)

"Painted Diaries" offers a perspective on Alzheimer's Disease which helped our family, and especially my wife, cope with the lonely jouney of my mother-in-law's illness. By sharing her experiences, Kim Howes Zabbia awakened us to a positive, proactive perspective on this most difficult topic. It is an excellent book, and we share it with anyone facing Alzheimer's in their family. It has been a blessing to us all.