When Meryl Comer’s husband Harvey Gralnick was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s disease in 1996, she watched as the man who headed hematology and oncology research at the National Institutes of Health started to misplace important documents and forget clinical details that had once been cataloged encyclopedically in his mind. With harrowing honesty, she brings readers face to face with this devastating condition and its effects on its victims and those who care for them. Detailing the daily realities and overwhelming responsibilities of caregiving, Comer sheds intensive light on this national health crisis, using her personal experiences — the mistakes and the breakthroughs — to put a face to a misunderstood disease, while revealing the facts everyone needs to know.