COMIX FOR CAREGIVERS, TESTIMONIALS

TESTIMONIALS

This book is Vital for Caregivers. Honest, raw, funny and informative…fact filled pages…great illustrations. As a caregiver for someone with dementia, I have been reading and rereading daily for support and insight. Marcie captures the emotional experience of caregiving. Wonderful quirky illustrations and fabulous vocabulary, games and fact pages. This graphic memoir will enrich any caregivers life. Ps this may be unbelievable to anyone not a caregiver. This is what it’s really like.
— Carolyn Mecklosky, Vermont

As a woman whose husband had PD for 12 years, this book resonated deeply. I wish I could have read this early into our journey. I would have been better prepared and would have understood that the bizarre things I experienced with my PD husband were a "normal" part of a very unpredictable neurological disease. This is a book for caregivers, and for health care professionals, most of whom do not understand the disease's complex cognitive changes and the serious emotional and financial consequences of these changes on both the PD patient and the caregiver. Thank you, Marcie, for being a generous truthteller.
— Lois Kelly, Connecticut. Lois is the author of Slow Loss, A Memoir of Marriage Undone by Disease

Dear Marcie, I received your book and in fact just finished it and I have to tell you that it is fantastic. It spoke to so much of what I have been going through with my partner who now has advanced PD. I especially appreciate the way you so honestly explored the psychological damage that was occurring to you as a caregiver of this disease. Because I have recently had to face that this was happening to me as well, I am going tomorrow to put down a deposit for a room for my partner at a memory care facility. It is a very hard and sad decision but for me it is a matter of survival. We’ve been living together for 39 years and I’m going to miss that so much but I think it will be best for her and for me. I’m hoping that in the new living situation we can rediscover each other without all the terrible stress. Your particular Parkinson’s journey was one of the roughest roads I have ever heard of. You have succeeded so beautifully in sharing it in such a heartfelt and also humorous way. Congratulations and best of luck with this book.
— Lisa Sanchez, California

My fellow artist, nurse, friend, Marcie Vallette has had her book, "Parkinsons Disease: Comix on Caretaking", published and available for sale!! And the world really needs this book.

I first met Marcie when doing an artist's residency at Vermont Studio Center. We shared a friend we also met there, and when he suddenly died, Marcie and her husband put me up when I came up for his funeral.

A wonderful, loving, very bright couple somewhat newly married. Not that many years later, Allen, was diagnosed with Parkinsons. Marcie moved from loving partner to her partner, to major caretaker. Well, she was always a loving partner, but things change when one of you gets a serious debilitating disease (understatement).

Through the years of being wife/friend/caretaker to Allen during the horrific reign of Parkinsons, Marcie was often very courageously honest about the impact of Allen's disease.

Though my experience with serious disabling disease provides a different viewpoint as the one who has the body this nasty thing is lodged in and all the guilt and loss and pain it comes with, but I also empathized tremendously with Marcie as caretaker/wife.

One of the things we commiserated on is as we go through this trauma, society really doesn't want us to talk about it. And that can include our families and friends which causes further isolation when we mostly need support or at least less judgement. Jeff and I had a therapist once that said that living with serious disabling disease is like having a unwanted, uninvited forever guest come into your home.

There is hospice now and it's improving, though we need more work there too. But there is practically no support for people with serious long term disabling disease and their caregivers. We're pretty much left to "fly by the seat of our pants". So, Marcie got even busier and started filling that hole with this wonderfully illustrated and written book about her experiences with Allen and the world as his caregiver and wife. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
And it is sprinkled with dark humor which I feel like is a necessary survival tool.

As I advocate for people who are disabled, I'm also learning more and more how we need to do better in supporting CAREGIVERS in this country whether it's Moms, Dads, spouses, children, other family, or friends.

Get this for yourself or someone that you love. Or both.
—Lyn Horan, Massachusetts

Marcie utilizes her unique talents as a writer and cartoonist to share her inspirational story of caring for her husband, Allen, while offering recommendations for caring for someone with Parkinson's disease. I have never seen an artist or writer approach such a challenging subject with the same sensitivity, insight, and a touch of humor. Her work aims to comfort, educate, and bring a smile to readers' faces. It is an excellent resource for caregivers, reminding them they are not alone in their journey. An excellent tool for caregivers to show they are not alone.
— William Decoff, Massachusetts

Thanks! Marcie Vallette mvallette@hotmail.com

GRAPHIC MEMOIR: Parkinson’s Disease, Comix for Caregivers: a graphic memoir of caregiving with educational pages, by Marcie Vallette, available on Amazon. Scroll down to read what some people are saying about this book.