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Lisa Genova

Lisa Genova Biography

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“I am a wife, mother, and friend, and soon to be grandmother, I still feel, understand, and am worthy of the love and joy in those relationships. I am still an active participant in society. My brain no longer works well, but I use my ears for unconditional listening, my shoulders for crying on, and my arms for hugging others with dementia. Through an early stage support group...by talking to you today, I am helping others with dementia live better with dementia. I am not someone dying. I am someone living with Alzheimer's. I want to do that as well as I possibly can.”

GriefCourageLivingOvercomingThriving
Book:Still Alice
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“Diagnosis doesn't mean you are dying tomorrow. Keep living. You won't lose your emotional memory. You'll still be capable of understanding love and joy. You might not remember what I said 5 minutes ago or even who I am but you'll remember how I made you feel. You are more than what you can remember.”

LoveRememberEmotionsMemoryAlzheimers
Book:Remember: The Science of Memory and the Art of Forgetting
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“She wished she had cancer instead. She'd trade Alzheimer's for cancer in a heartbeat. She felt ashamed for wishing this, and it was certainly a pointless bargaining, but she permitted herself the fantasy anyway. With cancer, she'd have something to fight. There was surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy. There was the chance that she could win. Her family and the community at Harvard would rally behind her battle and consider it noble. And even if it defeated her in the end, she'd be able to look them knowingly in the eye and say good-bye before she left.”

DiseaseCancerBargainingCoping MechanismsAlzheimer S Disease
Book:Still Alice
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“She could always walk somewhere without him. Of course this somewhere had to be somewhere "safe." She could walk to her office. But she didn't want to go to her office. She felt bored, ignored, and alienated in her office. She felt ridiculous there. She didn't belong there anymore. In all the expansive grandeur that was Harvard, there wasn't room there for a cognitive psychology professor with a broken cognitive psyche.”

GriefGrief And LossAlzheimersChronic Disease
Book:Still Alice
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“Someday, scientists will discover a vaccine, a prophylactic, a cure, and people will talk about ALS the way they talk about polio. Parents will tell their children that people used to get something called ALS, and they died from it. It was a horrible disease that paralyzed its victims. Children will vaguely imagine the horror of it for a moment before skipping along to a sunnier topic, fleetingly grateful for a reality that will never include those three letters.”

DiseaseAlsDeath And Dying
Book:Every Note Played
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“We kiss good-bye. It's our typical morning good-bye kiss. A quick peck. A well-intentioned habit. I look down and notice Lucy's round, blue eyes paying close attention. I flash to studying my own parents kissing when I was little... I promised myself that when I got married someday, I would have kisses that meant something. Kisses that would make me weak in the knees. Kisses that would embarrass the kids. Kisses like Han Solo kissing Princess Leia... Now I get it. we aren't living in some George Lucas blockbuster adventure. Our morning kiss good-bye isn't romantic, and it certainly isn't sexual. It's a routine kiss, but I'm glad we do it. It does mean something. It's enough. And it's all we have time for.”

KissesMarried Love
Book:Left Neglected
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“And I have no control over which yesterdays I keep and which ones get deleted. This disease will not be bargained withMy yesterdays are disappearing, and my tomorrows are uncertain, so what do I live for? I live for each day. I live in the moment. Some tomorrow soon, I'll forget that I stood before you and gave this speech. But just because I'll forget it some tomorrow doesn't mean that I didn't live every second of it today. I will forget today, but that doesn't mean that today doesn't matter.”

MeanMatterMomentsTodayForgetTomorrowSpeechDiseaseDisappearYesterdayEach DayUncertainLive In The MomentForget ItEvery Second
Author:Lisa Genova
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“She liked being reminded of butterflies. She remembered being six or seven and crying over the fates of the butterflies in her yard after learning that they lived for only a few days. Her mother had comforted her and told her not to be sad for the butterflies, that just because their lives were short didn't mean they were tragic. Watching them flying in the warm sun among the daisies in their garden, her mother had said to her, see, they have a beautiful life. Alice liked remembering that.”

LifeMeanSaidBeautifulRememberMotherSunFateCrySixGardenSevenWarmFlyingRememberedTragicButterflyYardsBeautiful LifeDaisies
Author:Lisa Genova
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“You're so beautiful," said Alice. "I'm afraid of looking at you and not knowing who you are." "I think that even if you don't know who I am someday, you'll still know that I love you." "What if I see you, and I don't know that you're my daughter, and I don't know that you love me?" "Then, I'll tell you that I do, and you'll believe me.”

IfsThinkingKnowsBelieveSaidStillsBeautifulKnowingLove YouDaughterWho You AreWho I AmSomedayWhat IfMy DaughterBelieve In MeNot KnowingKnowing Who You AreYou Re So Beautiful
Book:Lisa Genova Box Set: Still Alice and Left Neglected
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“The well-being of a neuron depends on its ability to communicate with other neurons. Studies have shown that electrical and chemical stimulation from both a neuron's inputs and its targets support vital cellular processes. Neurons unable to connect effectively with other neurons atrophy. Useless, an abandoned neuron will die.”

WellsDiesProcessAbilitySupportStudyDependsCommunicateWell BeingUselessTargetChemicalsAbandonedElectricalInputStimulationNeuronsAtrophyCellularAbility To Communicate
Book:Lisa Genova Box Set: Still Alice and Left Neglected
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“She read it again. It was fascinating and surreal, like reading a diary that had been hers when she was a teenager, secret and heartfelt words written by a girl she only vaguely remembered. She wished she'd written more. Her words mad her feel sad and proud, powerful and relieved." p 272”

FeelsGirlReadingPowerfulSecretWrittenProudMadTeenagerRememberedFascinatingDiariesSurrealHeartfeltRelieved
Book:Lisa Genova Box Set: Still Alice and Left Neglected
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“Even then, more than a year earlier, there were neurons in her head, not far from her ears, that were being strangled to death, too quietly for her to hear them. Some would argue that things were going so insiduously wrong that the neurons themselves initiated events that would lead to their own destruction. Whether it was molecular murder or cellular suicide, they were unable to warn her of what was happening before they died.”

YearsEventsHappeningsDestructionEarsMurderDiedSuicideArguingNeuronsCellular
Book:Lisa Genova Box Set: Still Alice and Left Neglected
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“But will I always love her? Does my love for her reside in my head or my heart? The scientist in her believed that emotion resulted from complex limbic brain circuitry that was for her, at this very moment, trapped in the trenches of a battle in which there would be no survivors. The mother in her believed that the love she hadd for her daughter was safe from the mayhem in her mind, because it lived in her heart.”

MindHeartDoeMomentsWould BeMotherEmotionBrainMy HeartBattleSafeDaughterScientistComplexesSurvivorTrappedTrenchesMayhemLove For Her
Book:Still Alice
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