How Do You Find Yourself Again After Identity Loss, Trauma, and Caregiving?

#Grief #Loss #LifeBalance #Selfcare

Suzy McNamara is an author and speaker who gives a voice to various forms of grief and loss that so often go unnamed and are unaddressed. Suzy wrote the book, The Silkworm, the Magician, and the Sister Tree, a deeply personal and human exploration of caregiving, grief, enduring love, and health & wellness. In 2024, Suzy lost her husband of 37 years, Bob McNamara, to Posterior Cortical Atrophy, an aggressive form of early-onset Alzheimer’s, after caring for him at home for five years. Months earlier, her sister and lifelong best friend, Elizabeth Muslin, died from Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. These overlapping losses shape her perspective and inform her writing.

Suzy’s work offers particular insight into early-onset Alzheimer’s, where illness dismantles identity during years when marriages, careers, friendships, and family life are often at their most active. She writes honestly about the daily realities of caregiving, including isolation, exhaustion, and the quiet labor of preserving dignity, countering shame, emotional wellness, and holding onto meaning amid uncertainty. Suzy believes grief is a lonely sport and survival depends on community, shared language, and the courage to name what is often left unsaid. Grounded in sustaining faith practices, she writes to walk alongside readers as they navigate their own losses.

Suzy continues to find meaning through her lifelong love of books, movies, and music, interests she once shared with her husband and sister and now shares with her children and the wider community she has built.

Learn:

1. What identity loss actually feels.
2. How can a person find themselves again after years of being in survival mode?
3. Did writing The Silkworm, the Magician, and the Sister Tree help Suzy understand her own memory, grief, and healing?
4. How can prolonged stress, caregiving, and unresolved grief affect a person’s sense of self over time?
5. Get a couple of tips if you are caring for a loved one with Alzheimer’s or another condition, and you feel like you are disappearing on this caring journey.

Alzheimer’s Speaks Blog

https://alzheimersspeaks.com/how-do-you-find-yourself-again-after-identity-loss-trauma-and-caregiving/

Watch the Video Interview Below

https://youtu.be/1iGgNbYlbEY

Listen and Subscribe to Alzheimer’s Speaks on Apple Podcast

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/how-do-you-find-yourself-again-after-identity-loss/id986940432?i=1000760360523

Listen and Subscribe to Alzheimer’s Speaks on Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/episode/3gvhOd0O2mz3rOXOSFfCt7

Other Podcasts

https://pod.link/986940432

Dementia Map

https://dementiamap.com/events/#!event/2026/4/9/how-do-you-find-yourself-again-after-identity-loss-trauma-and-caregiving

Contact Suzy McNamara  

Website    https://suzymcnamara.com

LinkedIn    https://www.linkedin.com/in/suzymcnamara

Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/suzy.mcnamara

Instagram   https://www.facebook.com/suzy.mcnamara

Contact Lori La Bey of Alzheimer’s Speaks

Contact Lori La Bey with questions or branding needs at https://www.alzheimersspeaks.com/

Alzheimer's Speaks shifts dementia care from crisis to comfort around the world, one episode at a time, by raising all voices and delivering sound news, not just sound bites, since 2011.

Alzheimer's Speaks is part of the Senior Resource Podcast Network.