In her beautifully crafted memoir, Jodi Melsness finds herself caring for her mother after her father’s death from cancer. Warned by her father that her mother is becoming more forgetful, Jodi begins caring for her from afar, first commuting to and from her family home in her beloved hometown , then moving her mother to assisted living and finally to memory care. All the while, she is raising a family and working as a nurse, specifically with home care, hospice, and memory care.

Anyone who has cared for a loved one with memory loss will identify with this moving journey of a loving daughter navigating the ups and downs of the Alzheimer's disease that has stricken her beloved mother. And how she carries on even when her mother forgets her name and face.

The Lemon Bar Queen is a touching and sometimes humorous take on loving a person who has lost her thoughts and memories but finds comfort in coffee, the Dairy Queen, bingo, and a stuffed animal named Blue Dog. And it illustrates the grief of a daughter whose training in the field makes slowly and painfully losing her mother no easier.

Jodi Melsness is a first-time memoirist and registered nurse, working specifically in home care and hospice. This book was developed from the blog she wrote about her mother’s time in memory care.