Love in the Time of Forgetting is a lyrical, deeply personal memoir of caring for a beloved husband through the unfolding of Lewy body dementia. In these pages, Juanita Johnson invites readers into the tender, complex landscape of love that endures even as memory fades.
Through episodic letters and journal entries, Johnson traces how love deepened through the dailiness of caregiving, how presence became devotion, and how she and her husband, Earl, met the slow unraveling of his mind with honesty, grace, and shared spiritual understanding. They spoke openly about what was happening to him, to their marriage, and about his dying. Woven through the narrative are glimpses of Earl’s grounded spirituality, the solace they found in their nightly rituals of reading and deep breathing, the steadfast support of their family, and the transformation Johnson experienced in the years following his death.
More than a memoir of caregiving and grief, Love in the Time of Forgetting is a testament to how love—steady, imperfect, and enduring—can become its own form of grace.
Order your copy today.
Available from Resource Publications, Amazon, your local independent bookstore, or wherever books are sold.
Through episodic letters and journal entries, Johnson traces how love deepened through the dailiness of caregiving, how presence became devotion, and how she and her husband, Earl, met the slow unraveling of his mind with honesty, grace, and shared spiritual understanding. They spoke openly about what was happening to him, to their marriage, and about his dying. Woven through the narrative are glimpses of Earl’s grounded spirituality, the solace they found in their nightly rituals of reading and deep breathing, the steadfast support of their family, and the transformation Johnson experienced in the years following his death.
More than a memoir of caregiving and grief, Love in the Time of Forgetting is a testament to how love—steady, imperfect, and enduring—can become its own form of grace.
Order your copy today.
Available from Resource Publications, Amazon, your local independent bookstore, or wherever books are sold.
Love in the Time of Forgetting is a tender, luminous story about love that stays, even as memory loosens its grip. With honesty and deep compassion, Juanita Johnson invites us into the vulnerable, everyday reality of caring for her beloved husband as he journeyed through Lewy body dementia. What unfolds is a portrait of devotion in its truest form—quiet, steady, sometimes painful, always rooted in love."
-SANDRINE PILAZ, Hospital Chaplain, Sioux Falls, South Dakota
Love in the Time of Forgetting is a field guide for living and dying with presence, honesty, and grace. Through tender anecdotes of companioning her beloved Earl through Lewy body dementia, Johnson shows how gratitude, curiosity, delight, and deepening love can coexist—and even flourish—alongside sadness, fear, exhaustion, and profound loss. This book is a treasure, offering wisdom for all of us who will love, lose, and die."
-KARLA COMBRES, Legacy Guide and Celebrant, Shell Lake, SK, Canada
Juanita Johnson, M.A., is a storyteller, death educator, teacher, small-group facilitator, and former grief counselor whose work invites reflection on love, loss, and legacy. For more than four decades, she has guided individuals and communities through the sacred terrain of grief, teaching that end-of-life preparation is an act of connection and care. She produced the video Inner Views of Grief (Fanlight Productions, 1995), winner of the Silver Apple Award from the National Educational Media Network. This is her first book.