It wasn't in Dean Mitchell's nature to forget her daughter's birthday.
"She was always working to make others happy," remembered her daughter, Sonya Jury.
So when Jury didn't get a card in the mail on May 28, 2012, and when her mom didn't say "happy birthday" in a phone call the next day, either, she knew something was seriously wrong.
Not long after, doctors diagnosed Mitchell with dementia. Jury didn't quite know what to do. That's the inspiration behind her book "Mom Forgot My Birthday: A Daughter's Journey Through Alzheimer's."
Jury writes introspectively and with detail — punctuating stories with lessons readers should take away or do differently than she did.
"I wanted them to understand what a journey (with Alzheimer's) is like, and learn from me. It's my 'how-not-to' book," Jury said. "I really was very conscious about that. I didn't want people to think, 'Oh, that's a how-to book,' because there's no way to write a how-to book. Every situation is different."
- Sonya Jury, entrepreneur and author of "Mom Forgot My Birthday: A Daughter's Journey Through Alzheimer's"
