-
Your next favorite book
is waiting.
Summary | Discuss | Reviews | More Information | Read-Alikes
Dementia in a Loving Marriage
by Meredith Rutter Marple
I Live You For Ever is a candid and penetrating memoir chronicling Meredith Rutter Marple's nine-year journey caring for her husband, Gary, as mixed dementia reshaped the fabric of their marriage.
What began as small slips—forgotten directions, mental-math errors—unfolded into a relentless progression of symptoms associated with vascular dementia, Alzheimer's disease, and Lewy body dementia.
Drawing from her personal journals, Meredith captures the intimacy of conversations and the daily negotiations of love, anger, denial, and acceptance between partners bound together by decades of shared life. With honesty and compassion, she illuminates the dual tragedy of spousal dementia: the gradual fading of the ill partner and the parallel unraveling—and resilience—of the caregiving partner.
At once heartbreaking and hopeful, this memoir is both a testament to enduring love and a call to face the "what-ifs" of aging with courage and candor.
What are you reading this week? And what did you think of last week’s books? (5/7/2026)
I had a good reading week! I finished https://www.bookbrowse.com/bb_briefs/detail/index.cfm/ezine_preview_number/25431/shelter-island Shelter Island by Jill Wisoff for our indie/self-published program. It was a YA adventure, but it was quite entertaining. It might be the first five-star book I've...
-kim.kovacs
"... I Live You For Ever is an excellent memoir exploring one woman's experience with a
spouse's decline. This well-written, memorable work is moving, enlightening, and recommended for those interested in books focusing on grief and loss." —BookBrowse (5 star review)
"A beautiful memoir and a fierce testimony to the sacrifices we make in the name of love." —Kirkus Reviews
"...[L]ibrarians and readers need to place I Live You For Ever ahead of many others about dementia. ...Marple's effort is brilliant, tear-inducing, and thought-provoking, all in one." —D. Donovan, Senior Reviewer, Midwest Book Review
This information about I Live You For Ever was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
With a BS in zoology from Tufts University, Meredith Rutter Marple has enjoyed a career devoted to books—from textbook to trade publishing and then writing. She remembers her kindergarten classmates having to take naps (in the early 1950s during the polio scare) while she, promising to be quiet, was allowed to stay awake reading. She thanks her mother for that intervention. Meredith spends her time in Florida and Maine. Her award-winning debut novel, The Year Mrs. Cooper Got Out More, is set in Midcoast Maine. Hobbies include bridge, mahjong, and New York Times crossword puzzles.
If you liked I Live You For Ever, try these:
L.A. Women by Ella Berman
Two ambitious writers in 1960s LA face betrayal when one writes a novel based on the other's life.
Your guide toexceptional books
BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.
