She supported him as he struggled with schizophrenia. For nearly 40 years, Catherine and Olivier lived together. The family's ability to take care of one another had long depended on a delicate balance. Meanwhile, living on his own for the first time in decades, Olivier eats two bananas for dinner and stares absently at a broken television set, feeling lonely and guilty that he let his mother down.Ī drawing by Olivier Martini excerpted from The Unravelling. Between refusing to shower and protesting her move to a hospital, Catherine sobs as she worries about who will remind Olivier to take his pills. The memoir, told through text by Clem and illustrations by Olivier, recounts their family's desperate scramble when their mother, Catherine, develops dementia. And with a growing number of families encountering this very scenario, they suggest, the need to address these questions is urgent. The answers are frightening, chaotic and heart-breaking, Clem and his brother Olivier Martini reveal in their new memoir, "But what happens when that solution collapses? What happens when caregivers grow too old to provide care, or get ill and require care themselves?" 'The governments of this country, federal and provincial, have turned to family caregiving as the go-to solution for those struggling with mental illnesses," Calgary author Clem Martini writes.
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