L’dor v’dor, a Hebrew phrase translated “from generation to generation,” is meant to convey the concept of passing on Jewish spiritual traditions and cultural customs across time. For Robert Fischbach, this includes the value placed on caring for one’s family members when their health declines, something he observed and absorbed by watching his own parents caring for their parents, and his mother caring for his father.

Bob’s wife Janie was diagnosed with FTD at age 60. In his newly published memoir, “Faithful as She Fades,” he provides an honest and intimate first-person account of his journey as an FTD caregiver to his beloved wife.

Bob takes the reader on a heartfelt, emotional, sometimes funny and always moving journey through the decades he spent with his wife – and then through the near-decade in which he slowly had to let her go. He shares what it was like to navigate the difficult emotions that accompany an FTD diagnosis, and explores the realities of caregiving when a loved one is afflicted with such a cruel and unrelenting illness.

“When my wife, the person I love the most, was diagnosed with FTD, I was utterly unprepared — it was our worst fear becoming a reality. My book tells the story of her devastating diagnosis, and the power of love, faith and resilience that kept us going when she needed me most.”

A story of staggering loss, everyday heroism, and unshakable commitment, Bob’s book is about going through the worst that life can throw at you, and then figuring out how to live and love again.

Faithful as She Fades: A Memoir of Love and Dementia can be ordered here. Bob has generously offered a portion of all proceeds from the sale of his book to benefit AFTD’s mission.