First, my writing coach client, Sam Simon, who is one of the original Nader Raiders, tackled breast cancer when he wrote a challenging memoir about what happened when his wife of 34 years was diagnosed. He was convinced that the love of his life would die. Amazingly, considering she had stage 3 breast cancer, she didn’t.
Instead of writing from his wife Susan’s perspective, The Actual Dance: Love’s Ultimate Journey Through Cancer chronicles the experience from Sam’s point of view as the love partner who can’t fix his wife and can’t voice his fears since she is so determined to surround herself with positivity. He escapes to an imaginary ballroom where he envisions the last dance they will share.
Kirkus Reviews proclaimed the award-winning memoir to be “a lucid, unexpectedly uplifting, and affecting celebration of love that finds hope in despair.”
Now Sam is writing about his own health challenge, one that, barring a miracle, probably won’t have as happy an ending.
Like the Actual Dance, Dementia Man started out as a one-man play. I will let Sam describe the play in his own words:
In this full-length theatrical piece, Simon takes the stage as a man facing his cognitive decline and asks the hard questions of what to do next in the face of what he calls “an existential journey.” It is a peek into the head and heart of the struggle with a broken medical system and a personal and family challenge. The play challenges the audience to imagine a meaningful future for the millions of people with neurocognitive disease, with accommodation and adaptation.
Sam Simon, https://www.dementiaman.com/
Once again, the memoir, which Sam has just started to write, will expand upon the play and bring to life his experiences leading up to his Alzheimer’s diagnosis as well as how he copes, and the realities and fears he contends with. And, in true Nader Raider fashion, the memoir Dementia Man, like the play, will challenge the conditions that people with dementia face today and lobby for specific, out-of-the-box improvements.
As we are approaching the end of World Alzheimer’s Month, it seems like an appropriate time to celebrate Sam’s achievements. I urge you to check out his one-man play called Dementia Man (you’ll find a calendar on the Dementia Man website), and to keep an eye out for his new memoir, which will also be titled Dementia Man and should be out sometime next year.
Thank you Linden — and we will next get the book of this play written
We sure will, Sam. You’ve gotten a great start. I can’t wait to see where this goes and how it deepens the experience that the play provides.