'American Fiction' told my story. Being a dementia caretaker is exhausting.
One thought circled my head when my dad received his dementia diagnosis: "Why should I care for someone who didn't care for me as a child?"
I was 22 years old. My dad was 56.
Underneath the satire in "American Fiction," the movie dives into the reality for many caregivers of dementia patients. It sucks.
The film, based on Percival Everett's 2001 novel "Erasure," pokes at the fabric of frail familial relationships that only worsen when adult siblings Thelonious "Monk" Ellison (Jeffrey Wright), Lisa (Tracee Ellis Ross) and Cliff (Sterling K. Brown) find out their mother Agnes (Leslie Uggams) has dementia.