Shards

Love being the last thing to be forgotten. Allister and Gede's retirement plan: savor their remaining years on the pond behind their home and enjoy the visiting birds and butterflies while drinking tea in Gede's garden. Together they experience their final challenge—Allister's journey into dementia, where the fragments of a life become a masterpiece of love. In the quiet of their Georgia garden, Allister remembers his life—a career teaching literature at Columbia, decades together with Gede in New York City, traveling the world, to Rome, to Venice, to London, and so many places with lifelong dear friends—the only way he can: in fragments. As Allister's lucid moments give way to those of confusion and loss, decimating a lifetime of memories, Gede transforms from lover and husband to witness and caregiver. Through this last passage of their life together, both men discover an even deeper meaning of love. Allister's final journey leaves the reader glad to have known Allister and Gede. This gentle story promises wisdom at the center of extreme pain. It paints a portrait of a man who loved and was loved by the people in his life.