The Day after Yesterday

Book excerpt: A deft combination of narrative and portraiture that breaks the taboo around dementia, replacing the fear and futility with empathy and nuance. A graphic designer, a writer, a public servant, a retired PhD, a 29-year-old with early-onset Alzheimer’s. These are just some of the 50 million people living with dementia who share their deeply personal stories with Joe Wallace in The Day after Yesterday, a powerful collection of portraits and personal stories that humanizes the millions of people living with the disease. Each story in this poignant volume offers a unique and powerful lesson—not just about how to live with a terminal illness, but how to do so with resilience and dignity. Dementia is often a taboo subject with limited public awareness or discourse. A diagnosis can become a mechanism for segregating those affected from society, making it easier to see only the label and not the individual, which, in turn, makes it easier to ignore the burgeoning health crisis and the individuals themselves. But as one man told Wallace, “Don’t believe the narrative that life is over. I want my voice to help get people to treat us the same as they did before we got the diagnosis. We may change some, but we are the same people!” More than a visual representation, The Day after Yesterday’s compassionate portraits capture the dignity and richness of each individual, destigmatizing dementia and enabling a loving, respectful, and much-needed conversation.