“It’s called the long goodbye or the journey. It can go for 20 years and sometimes it can go quickly. But it’s really a roller coaster ride with twists and turns, high peaks and low valleys,” said Nancy Stone, of the experience family members go through when a loved one is stricken with Alzheimer’s disease. 

“The poetry got me through those things,” said Stone, the author and illustrator of a new book of poems called “Indigo Hours: Healing Haiku.” 

2018 was a year of milestones for Ken and Nancy Stone. That year, the longtime Williston residents completed their goal of visiting every one of Vermont’s 251 towns, an effort that would lead to the publication of a book of postcard-sized watercolor paintings and journal entries – one for each town – created by Nancy. It was also the year the couple faced Ken’s diagnosis with dementia caused by Alzheimer’s.  

This latter milestone was not one the couple expected. Ken led an active and accomplished life. In addition to his career with the State of Vermont ensuring the safety of the state’s drinking water, he served on the Williston Selectboard, served as Rotary Club president and as scout master of Boy Scout Troop 692. In his volunteer work with Habitat for Humanity, he built homes in Vermont, Kentucky and Georgia and participated in hurricane rebuilding trips to Georgia, Texas and Connecticut. He hiked the length of the Appalachian Trail.  

Then Ken became one of the more than 6 million Americans who today are living with Alzheimer’s disease. 

At an event celebrating the launch of her book on Oct. 21 at the Old Brick Church, Nancy described for the audience how she found herself waking up in the middle of the night jotting down observations to share with their primary care physician. She began reading the poems of Mary Oliver to help her face what lay ahead.

“After I while I started writing my own haiku,” said Nancy.  

Seeking a playmate

My muse wakes me at midnight

We frolic for hours

She wrote poems on multiple post-it notes to get to the right wording. 

Two years ago, she had accumulated 200 poems and began illustrating some of them so that she could enter a book arts exhibition.

Last year she shared with friends the now 350 poems she had written. They insisted she publish them to help other caregivers. 

Nancy – a visual artist and educator who taught art at Williston Central School, Vermont Commons School, and Community College of Vermont and who didn’t think of herself as a poet – was hesitant. 

But she recalled a line from a favorite Mary Oliver poem that reads, “Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” and in the spirit of “you only live once,” she contacted Rootstock Publishing in Montpelier. They agreed to publish her work. 

Having just turned 80, she says it’s a shock to now be a published poet. But she has found that publishing the book has been a gift. 

“It has been a healing balm for me. People tell me they find solace in the haiku,” she said. 

David Yandell, professor emeritus of pathology at the University of Vermont, quoted in a press release for the book’s launch, said: “Stone’s book is a heartfelt meditation, in haiku and visual poetry, on her passage into the mysterious journey so many of us are forced to take with a loved one … Her words and art will be familiar and comforting to anyone who is embarking on a journey into the confusing darkness of dementia.”

Nancy has also found comfort from her Alzheimer’s support group that meets twice monthly.

“We’ve had celebrations and mourning and a lot of laughter. It’s really, really helpful,” she said.

The book covers the five years since Ken’s diagnosis. The poems and illustrations capture the progression of his condition and its impact on their life together. Ken is now living in a memory care facility where Nancy and their two adult children pay frequent visits. 

“There are hard days. Last night I had tears in my eyes because I was missing who he was. But he’s still delightful,” said Nancy. “I’m blessed with a very cheerful husband still.”

“Indigo Hours: Healing Haiku” can be purchased directly from Rootstock Publishing (www.rootstockpublishing.com), locally in hardcover and softcover editions at Phoenix Books, and on Amazon.