The Unexpected Journey: Finding Strength, Hope and Yourself on the Caregiving Path

Willis, cofounder of Make Time Wellness and wife of actor Bruce Willis, details in her compassionate debut how caregivers can better care for themselves. After 13 years of marriage, Willis began to notice that her husband was mentally and physically deteriorating. He struggled to communicate and make plans, and was eventually diagnosed with aphasia and frontotemporal dementia in 2022. Drawing from her experience coming to grips with her husband’s disease, she urges caregivers to thoroughly educate themselves on a loved one’s condition (but direct friends and family to online resources to avoid continually reexplaining it to them); find community with other caregivers; and carve out time for activities that are “just for you” (before she was comfortable leaving her husband for extended periods of time, the author found solace gardening in the backyard). While suggestions for exercising, getting enough sleep, and eating right won’t be new to readers, Willis constructs a candid and convincing case that staying physically and emotionally healthy is essential to looking after someone else (she soberingly notes that 30% of caregivers die before the loved one they’re caring for, and at a rate that’s 63% higher than other people of the same age). Admirably vulnerable and openhearted, this will be a balm for readers grappling with a loved one’s recent diagnosis. (Sept.)

Correction: An earlier version of this review misstated the early signs of Bruce Willis’s condition as described in the book.