My step-father, Wayne Kaiser,  was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease a few years ago and it was the saddest news I could imagine. It’s been very hard for Wayne and all of us around him to see the disease progress. I wanted to do something nice for him to make him feel better.

I got the idea to create a book after listening to a local NPR story about Alzheimer’s disease and their care-givers. I was inspired to make it more than just a photo album; adding names to photos and stories to help him remember his extraordinary life.

Wayne has much clearer memories of his time in the Navy stationed in Japan. I added extra pages pertaining to his time in Japan where he did a lot of exploring.

He really loves and appreciates his book and looks at it almost daily. I think it helps him feel like himself again.