Esther's Writing Works
BOOK LAUNCH 

FOR

DEAR ALZHEIMER'S: 
A CAREGIVER'S DIARIES & POEMS

SUN. SEPT. 8, 2013

ELLIOTT BAY BOOK COMPANY

3 P.M.
 UPCOMING READINGS            WORKSHOPS            ARTIST'S STATEMENT            POEMS           DEAR ALZHEIMER'S             SELECTED WRITINGS
SPOUSE AS HOME

I didn't know he
was my shul
my language
my mother tongue
and prayer
the zeyde I lost
and bubbies
I never had.
Or that he was my homeland.
And exile.
My nakedness.

I didn't know
when I met him
twenty-five years ago
that I had needed
a place to
dwell
in. 
Or that knowing
turned less
into more.
And more
into
less.

Oh,
where
shall I dwell
when he's
gone

Where
shall
I
when
he's ...

-Esther Altshul Helfgott
from Beyond Forgetting: Poetry and Prose about Alzheimer's Disease
edited by Holly J. Hughes with an introduction by Tess Gallagher
Kent State University Press, 2009, Literature and Medicine Series


Our Wedding Day, September 13, 1981
WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

Esther, your book came late yesterday, I glanced through, cried a little and had to put it down. Your writing moves me today as much as it did when I first discovered our Abe connection accidently. I felt blessed then and continue to feel blessed by knowing you.

I am going to order another book for the daughter of a friend whose husband (in his 50's) is in the middle of this horrendous journey. I will post a picture of how your book looks in Houston, TX.