Poppa Sol and Me

"Richard Balaban's Poppa Sol & Me is an endearing portrait of life with a loved one who has Alzheimer's. It reads like a series of postcards home-snapshots capturing moments along his father's long, difficult journey with the disease. Intensely personal, it offers a glimpse into a world that is both sad and sweet, one filled with despair and denial but also great tenderness. It's a story that will resonate with anyone who's accompanying a loved one who's no longer who they once were yet whose presence reminds us of why we're all here."

Dave Iverson, journalist, filmmaker, and author of Winter Stars: An Elderly Mother, An Aging Son and Life's Final Journey

"...a moving and enlightening account of both the challenges and the rewards of family caregiving for a parent with dementia. As the compelling story of a man and his dad, the book makes a real contribution to a literature which is replete with stories by and for women. Through both tears and joy, through loss and gain, we can see what it means to be a loving son. Lovingly told with wonderful detail, the story will hopefully inspire many more men to take on the caregiving role with open eyes and be rewarded with the opportunity to look back on life with satisfaction and pride."

Philip B. Stafford, Indiana University, author of Elderburbia: Aging with a Sense of Place in America

"Richard Balaban took a great risk when he wrote Poppa Sol & Me: he dared to follow his cognitively deteriorating father beyond the cliched boundaries of the 'dementia journey' and look life and death, past and present, father and son, in the eye. We are blessed by what Balaban sees. And blessed more still by the courage of the heart that hazards such vision."

Michael Verde, Memory Bridge, Founder