STAYING SANE ON THE CRAZY TRAIN: Journeying to the End with My Mother

Given the choice, would you rather lose a coveted executive position or your only family member to dementia? What if you lost both, almost simultaneously?

Staying Sane on the Crazy Train is a very human story—told with compassion, insight and humor—about a mother who goes from glamorous stewardess to eccentric hoarder.

A journey begins: daughter Kim Nagy embarks on a relentless quest for inner growth during the most challenging period of her life as she cares for her mother, this erratic, and at times, infuriating woman. It’s a roller coaster ride, both excruciating and uplifting.

Inspired by both Nature and her love of photography, Nagy learns to make peace with her situation by leaning into the natural world. Viewing wildlife through a lens shows her what’s right with the world and confirms that photography, like life, is all about focus.

Ultimately, she is forced to let go. Nagy likens the experience to a car skid. Although it seems counterintuitive, the best way to manage a skid is to take your foot off the brake.

More Praise for STAYING SANE ON THE CRAZY TRAIN

A deeply thoughtful and beautifully written memoir that reads like a tense mystery novel, poignant and disturbing. We are taken across a gripping two-year arc, a harrowing quest to find peace for a mother under professional care. But it is also the journey of the daughter struggling to rise above her resentment for being a victim of her mother’s neediness and finally to become herself. An accomplished wildlife photographer, Nagy discovers solace and meaning through her lenses, as she focuses on owlets preparing to separate from their parents, presaging her own metaphorical growth as she learns how to glide through darkness. —Gary Braver, International bestselling award-winning author of Rumor of Evil

A sincere memoir penned in real time about one of humankind's noblest acts — caring for a parent who can no longer care for themselves. Kim Nagy's heartfelt journey is an utterly unpredictable trip into the abyss, burdened with unceasing stress, confusion, frustration and profound anger. Throughout the book, Nagy's brutal honesty can be excruciating, entirely understandable, and at times, strangely comforting. She lays bare the emotional toll on a daughter who's trapped between accepting such a huge responsibility and desperately attempting to maintain her own sanity. Staying Sane on the Crazy Train serves as a guide for anyone going through the pain of witnessing a family-member entering one of life's bittersweet seasons. A marvelously written story of love, compassion and self-transformation. —Jeff Barnd, TV News Director and 13-Time Emmy-Award Winning TV News Anchor in the Boston/Baltimore/DC TV markets

Kim Nagy tells the difficult tale of caring for a troubled mother sinking progressively further into a dark hole, threatening to take her daughter down with her. While trying to help her mother, Nagy learns that it is not in her power to make her mother happy or sane. In the end, the author of this compelling memoir discovers that happiness is the business of each individual. —Laura R. Duggan, Playwright, Historical Reenactor, and TV Hostess of Medford Community Media's Looking Back at Medford History

It's a familiar story. A parent ages. A daughter tries to care for her while living her own life. The challenge of decline and dementia become almost too much to bear. But the daughter does her best, and in the long run, it's the best that anyone could do. Many readers have lived this story, by turns harrowing and hopeful, harsh and poignant, exasperating and exhausting and ultimately uplifting. But Nagy tells it so beautifully, with such raw honesty and love, that it seems to be unfolding for the first time. A truly special book. —William Martin, New York Times Bestselling Author of Back Bay and December '41