My grandma checked out of her body long before she passed. Her advanced stage of Alzheimers guaranteed I would never get to know my grandmother. When she passed when I was thirteen, it was a relief for all involved because she wouldn't have to struggle to maintain her mind anymore. Although it is sad for me to know I'll never know who she was before she was calling my stepmother by my dog's name and shrieking shrilly because she didn't recognize any of her visitors, it's better that she no longer has to endure trying to climb up hill to reconcile my aging father with the boy who will be perpetually thirteen in her mind.

When I came upon Welcome to the Departure Lounge in my recommendations, I decided to read an excerpt and was laughing before I knew it. Meg Federico figured out the perfect balance to encapsulate the seriousness of the situation of her mother and stepfather and a way to bring with it levity. It's a touching memoir of a woman (and her siblings) who had to take time out from raising her family to baby sit her rapidly declining parents.

The book starts with a call to Meg saying that Addie and Walter are in the hospital in Florida after Addie took a pretty nasty tumble outside after some cocktails. Walter, suffering from Alzheimers, is angry, confused, and agitated. Addie sits up on the gurney, demands an autopsy, before promptly passing back out. This agitates Walter further as he is aware that to be autopsied, one must be dead. Addie, not diagnosed with anything but old age, is edging into dementia as well and tells Walter that they can fly home if they simply take off their shoes and that she takes photos with her feet and pulls them from her belly button.

Federico has a lot on her plate: growing children and a husband at home, seeing to her parents, and calming fights between the very expensive staff who doesn't work very hard at anything aside from wreaking havoc in the home and stealing from the elderly. Walter's daughter Cathy has hired caretakers for her father, while Meg has to work with the staff for her mother and the two sides frequently butt heads.

Despite a very sobering topic, the material within will have you in stitches. Federico's patience and affection for her mother is felt throughout.