Lisa Berlanga

Dementia wasn’t the hardest part.
Living through it is.

When Lisa’s mother began her descent into dementia, life didn’t gently change course — it detonated. Suddenly, every day became a battlefield of confusion, exhaustion, guilt, anger, survival mode, and impossible decisions. And while every book she found promised “P" (positivity),” “compassion,” and “reward,” nobody seemed willing to say what caregiving actually felt like in the trenches.

So she will.

Part memoir, part survival guide, and fully uncensored, this book takes readers through the emotional and practical realities of dementia caregiving — from heartbreak, fear, burnout, and feeling completely lost, to eventually finding strength, clarity, peace, and her GOLD solutions that actually helped.

And although she tells it through her self-described “four stages” of caregiving, this isn’t a polished clinical handbook. It feels more like a visit to her home as you sit across from her at the kitchen table or on a couch.   

-Funny, heartbreaking, chaotic, explicit, and deeply human, this book is for the caregivers who are overwhelmed, exhausted, emotionally fried, and desperate for someone to finally tell it to them straight or even provide some much-deserved validation.