Throughout her father’s journey with Alzheimer’s, Kerri Tillquist often woke in the night with stanzas in her head. A nurse from Denver, she found herself processing her father’s decline through rhyming lines—a way to simplify and make sense of her emotions.
Encouraged by her sisters, Kerri compiled the poems with family photos as a Father’s Day gift. A friend who received a copy urged her to enter a contest for new authors at Denver’s Tattered Cover Book Store.
Chance meeting at our bookstore // The warm, familiar place // I am his middle child // He did not know my face.
To her surprise, Kerri won the contest and sold out at her book signing. Wanting the proceeds to help end the disease that inspired her work, she connected with mountaineer and fundraiser Alan Arnette and chose Cure Alzheimer’s Fund as the book’s beneficiary. With help from an editor friend, her poem “My Dad’s Alzheimer’s” became available on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.
Bittersweet melancholy // Travels from head to heart // How strange, how sad, to miss my dad // While sitting chairs apart.
Kerri’s father, Dale C. Hart, was a decorated Marine and lifelong educator remembered for his hearty laugh and generous spirit. Kerri’s poetry, she says, “puts such a face to the disease,” and she was moved by how deeply readers connected to it. Her neighborhood bookstore even displayed her book for Father’s Day, honoring both her work and her dad.
He has given timeless gifts // We are richer for receiving // Gifts reborn in daughters and sons // The legacy he is leaving.
Kerri’s engagement with Cure Alzheimer’s Fund has now become a part of Dale’s legacy, too, as his story is embraced by other families affected by the disease. His spirit lives on through Kerri’s sharing of his story and the Alzheimer’s research funded through its sales. The organization’s commitment to allocating all general donations to research programs was especially important to Kerri, allowing her to “[stay] true to her dad” and the impact she wanted his story to have.
Kerri’s brother-in-law, Bob, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s more recently, so her family continues to be committed to the mission to end the disease’s devastation for her family members and others like them.
Kerri’s poetry is available online through Barnes and Noble and Amazon.