Early Onset Alzheimer’s: A Love Story

It started with strange behavior—a hostile outburst here, a peculiar lapse of memory there. Then it became violent. The beautiful, vivacious Carmen Moffett was behaving in ways her husband Pat could not understand. Their marriage had been a long love affair. Together, they raised five beautiful children in Great Neck, New York, and were looking forward to planning their retirement together. Then came the outbursts, both verbal and physical, and the forgetting.

Confused and increasingly nervous, Pat consulted doctors, but no one could find anything physically wrong with Carmen. Worse yet, she could not remember doing the things that rattled Pat. Finally, several years later, incidents at Carmen’s work forced her to another doctor, Gisele Wolf-Klein, who diagnosed the devastating illness. As she slipped away, Carmen reached out for Pat. He was the one she could remember, even if she did not always know exactly who he was.

With remarkable grace and an incredibly strong will, Carmen accepted that she was fading, that she would disappear. But through all of it, she managed to reserve three words for Pat. These three words exemplify the theme of their lives together, to this day.

“Ice Cream in the Cupboard takes the reader on the tumultuous journey of one family’s struggle with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Moffett’s soul-bearing account is painfully honest and gives the reader a very personal perspective of this insidious illness and its overwhelming impact on all in its path.”—Barbara Vogel, Northwell Health

“With considerable polish and frankness, Moffett crystalizes the issues surrounding Early Onset Alzheimer’s, a disease that will become increasingly prevalent as baby boomers move through their 50’s. Cathartic and cautionary.”—Kirkus Discoveries