Robert J. McAllister

I am a retired psychiatrist and professor who spent the last nine years of my life as sole cargiver for my wife, Jane, who died in February 2012 at Vantage House, a Life Care Community in Columbia, MD. In December 2006 I began writing an account of our life with the illness, an account completed in May 2012 and published as "An Alzheimer's Love Story" by AuthorHouse in June 2012.

I have a doctorate in psychology from Catholic University and a medical degree from Georgetown University. I have been on the faculty at Catholic University, the University of Nevada, Gonzaga University in Spokane,WA, St. John's University in Collegeville, MN, and Loyola University, Baltimore. In past years I lectured in over 24 states.

I am 93 years old and my excellent health allows me to continue what I am now dedicated to: giving lectures on the subject "Alzheimer's: The Challenge of Care." Jane and I were together 50 years in a closely bonded relationship. I learned more about life and about love in the past nine years than I had learned in the previous 84 years. I am a strong advocate of bringing Alzheimer's into the open, not just with the public, but with individual patients. They need to talk about the wild and frightening thoughts that are active in their heads. The greatest gift caregivers can give them is to encourage them to talk about it all.