Joyce Sorensen’s memoir, Together Through Korea and Alzheimer's, is a tribute to her husband Richard Gale Sorensen whom she lovingly calls Dickie. The couple met in 1949 when they both attended Willamette High. Dickie and Joyce came from completely different backgrounds. Dickie was a popular student and he carried on a more than friendly relationship with Joyce that left her confused. After a few tentative steps, the relationship blossomed - despite the difficulties that Joyce’s mother placed between them. Married at nineteen, with the Korean War raging in Asia, Joyce and Dickie were determined to stay together. When Dickie was drafted by the US Military, the young couple already had Karen, their first child. Joyce had to go back to her parents’ home while Dickie was thousands of miles away with only letters and occasional phone calls to keep them together.

Together Through Korea and Alzheimer’s is a book that relates the intimate relationship of high school sweethearts Dick and Joyce Sorensen. They got married at nineteen and stayed devoted to each other until Dick’s bout with Alzheimer’s and his eventual death. Joyce Sorensen looks back on a life with a man who has proven to be her soul mate. At a time when the divorce rate is at its highest level worldwide, theirs is an uplifting love story. It is beautiful proof that love endures. The story is pieced together through the various letters they exchanged when Dick was involved in the Korean War. More than anything else, these letters are the most revealing of their innermost thoughts and feelings. Separated and facing life’s ugly uncertainties, their bond becomes even stronger and this is perhaps the greatest lesson we get from this novel - that real love can conquer anything life brings us.

In a tender, sweet and truly heartfelt true life story, Together Through Korea and Alzheimer's by author Joyce Sorensen is a book that no doubt will touch its readers in a profound way. Recounting the lives and love of Dick and Joyce Sorensen, from the time they meet and fall in love at the tender age of sixteen, against the objections of their families, to Dick's deployment to Korea, and all the way through to the end of Dick's life, when he and the family as a whole deal with his diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease, this story shares the couple's adventures, happiness, tenderness and grief in such a compelling way that readers will have a hard time putting the book down once they've started it.

I loved Together Through Korea and Alzheimer's. Loved. It. How's that for a review? This lovely story touched my heart from the very start, made me laugh at times, and brought me to tears at others. Author Joyce Sorensen's honest portrayal of her life with her husband Dick, from their youth all the way through the end of his life, is a tribute to both of them, and provides a wonderful example of the power of love through difficult times. Any reader who is looking for a wonderful real life love story should absolutely read Together Through Korea and Alzheimer's. I highly recommend this book, and thank author Joyce Sorensen for her willingness to share this very personal and beautiful story with her readers.