If She Doesn't Die Soon I'll Have to Take Her With Me

Helen is a free-spirited art worker who hopes to travel one day, but as her mother, Edna, nears her mid-nineties and has been diagnosed with dementia, Helen knows she is going to require increasing support and care as the illness inevitably progresses.

Relocation isn’t an option. Oblivious to her developing dementia, Edna is feisty and independent and intends to die in her own home without ever needing to be looked after in any way. And what Edna wants, she usually gets. 

This frank, often funny, suspenseful, and at times intensely dramatic, true story carries the reader on the writer’s personal journey as she takes on her biggest project yet –  “Project Mum” – dealing with accidents, hospital visits, brushes with the police, and that ‘secret Nan’s business’ without letting Edna ever realise why she is there. Many amusing incidents lighten the sometimes tedious, semi-cloistered life of a live-in carer. Helen shares her experiences with wisdom and humour and gives insights into the strategies and management  tools she used to stay the course.

It’s a book about mothers and daughters, dementia and carers, and the healing power of laughter.