In this moving memoir of family, memory, and caregiving, Woman of Valor traces the long shadow of Alzheimer’s disease and dementia across multiple generations of one family.

Beginning in the early 1990s, Jeanne Simonoff recounts the gradual losses that reshape her world as dementia claims first her uncle, then her father, aunt, and beloved second mother. At the center of the story is Achias Chial, the “Woman of Valor” who helped raise Simonoff after the death of her birth mother when she was just two years old. Through years of caregiving, devotion, exhaustion, and grace, Simonoff explores what remains when memory begins to disappear.

Rich with vivid sensory memories and grounded in the traditions of a Russian-Jewish family, the memoir captures the small details that endure even as loved ones fade: the scent of lavender talc, the taste of oranges, the rituals of home, and the emotional bonds that survive profound loss.

Both intimate and universal, Woman of Valor speaks to caregivers, adult children, and anyone who has watched someone they love slowly change through dementia. Written with compassion, honesty, and moments of unexpected humor, this memoir offers comfort, recognition, and the reminder that love can persist even in the face of forgetting.

Jeanne Simonoff is also the author of Saving Myself: A Los Angeles Childhood. Her writing has been praised for its emotional clarity, lyricism, and deeply human insight.

A portion of the proceeds from this book will benefit nonprofit causes where allowable.