The House on Beartown Road: A Memoir of Learning and Forgetting by Elizabeth Cohen Van Pelt
0 – 40 - 80.  This is how the book begins with its author, Elizabeth , sandwiched in-between.  The House on Beartown Road is a beautiful story about a once privileged woman who had been taken care of her whole life, faced alone with the responsibility of caring for her baby daughter and aging father with Alzheimer’s.

Elizabeth had a charmed life.  As a child, she traveled the world accompanying her father, a highly respected economics professor, on trips.  She went to good schools, had a stable home environment, and basically didn’t need to worry about anything.  She met and fell in love with an artist, moved to New York City , married, had a baby and moved to an old farmhouse in Upstate New York.  Life was just peachy.  Then came the call from her sister pleading for help with their father whose illness was wreaking havoc.  So “Daddy” came to live with Elizabeth and her family, and weeks later Elizabeth ’s husband deserted them.

 

On her own, Elizabeth had to work at the newspaper, pay the bills, keep up with the house, feed her family (mostly hotdogs), and take care of two people – one young, one old – who needed constant attention.  And then came the bitter winter and the challenges of keeping an old farmhouse warm and not completely barricaded by mounds of snow, let alone making it out for groceries.

 

Although Elizabeth would have been justified in writing a whiny, “poor me” memoir of her experience, instead it is sweet and uplifting.  The love and respect for her father and adoration for her daughter, show through.  There are beautiful scenes where she describes the special bond between her daughter and father.  Ava is learning new things and Daddy is forgetting old things, which often bring them to almost the same level.

 

Being a single mother myself at one point with a daughter the same age as Ava, I could relate to much of what Elizabeth experienced.  But add a senile father and a harsh Upstate New York winter to the mix and you have yourself a very strong woman to survive it.  It wasn’t easy; she had a rough time; but she made it through with a new appreciation for herself and the strength she gained.

 

This is a book that many of us “sandwich generation” girlfriends can learn from as we are, or may soon be, faced with taking care of our young children and aging parents.  It is also a wonderful book for anyone who has a person in her life with Alzheimer’s disease. 

 

About the Author:  Elizabeth Cohen is a reporter and columnist at the Binghamton Press & Sun Bulletin. She and her family live in Port Crane, New York.

 buy now! The House on Beartown Road