The One with the News

June M. Blurton is a retired speech/language pathologist.

The short stories and vignettes in this book centre on one family.
Ambrose and Peggy meet in Scotland during World War II and marry. They
settle in a small town in Canada where they raise their daughter Alice
and adopted daughter Connie. Ambrose is a watchmaker, and they are an
average family, except for one thing. Ambrose carries the gene for
early-onset, familial Alzheimer’s Disease, and his three siblings died
from it. Eventually Ambrose develops the illness, and when Peggy can no
longer care for him at home, the family moves him into a health-care
facility.

The effects of this devastating disease are made very real, not only
for Ambrose, but also for his family and friends. As they think about
Ambrose, they relive some of their own lives. The characters in these
stories, though believable, do not evoke much empathy. The stories
themselves, however, are interesting.