A Daughter's Long Goodbye

When Alzheimer’s begins to steal her mother piece by piece, Sheri Swaim finds herself facing a grief that has no clear beginning and no simple end. Her mother is still there—still speaking, still laughing, still standing in front of her—but the woman Sheri has known all her life is slowly fading into confusion, fear, anger, and silence.

 

“A Daughter’s Long Goodbye” is a deeply personal memoir of family, caregiving, memory, and loss. With honesty, tenderness, and moments of unexpected humor. Sheri shares the emotional journey of watching her mother decline while also navigating her father’s stroke, difficult family decisions, repeated trips back home to Texas, the selling of her childhood home, and the painful responsibility of saying goodbye long before death arrives.

 

More than a story about Alzheimer’s, this is a story about love under pressure—the complicated bond between mother and daughter, the weight of unresolved family history, and the quiet courage required when roles reverse and the child becomes the caregiver.

 

For anyone who has walked beside a loved one through dementia, illness, or the slow unraveling of a family’s familiar world, this memoir offers a voice of understanding, compassion, and hard-earned grace.