Book excerpt: Heather Menzies led a fairly normal life sandwiched between a demanding career and a busy family typical of her baby-boomer generation. Then the ground shifted. Her aging widowed mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Enter Mourning: A Memoir on Death, Dementia, and Coming Home chronicles Menzies's transformative journey with her mother as words fail and the very nature of communication is redefined. Family dynamics among sisters and brothers come to the fore as the roles and responsibilities of the parent shift to the children. Menzies and her siblings experience growing up and growing old in touching and heart-wrenching ways. Grounded with personal, intimate photos, Enter Mourning balances poetic and practical sensibilities in its tale of a mother losing her grip on reality and a daughter coming to grips with her own.