Stories That Help Families Find the Words

My books are written for families facing conversations they never expected to have. From memory loss and guardianship to childhood responsibility, each story and guide offers language, comfort, and practical understanding when families need it most.

Family & Professional Guardianship

A practical guide for families, caregivers, and professionals making difficult guardianship decisions.

Guardianship is one of those subjects most people do not think about until life puts it directly in front of them. A parent begins to decline. A loved one can no longer manage daily decisions. A family disagrees about what should happen next. Suddenly, everyone is expected to understand legal responsibilities, court involvement, caregiving duties, personal rights, finances, and long-term care choices.

I wrote Family & Professional Guardianship for that exact moment.

This book helps readers understand what guardianship means, when it may become necessary, and how family guardianship differs from professional guardianship. It does not push families toward one answer. It gives them the information they need to ask better questions, weigh their options, and make decisions with greater confidence.

Many families step into guardianship with love, but love alone does not explain the paperwork, court expectations, ethical responsibilities, or day-to-day obligations. A guardian may need to manage healthcare decisions, protect assets, arrange services, communicate with professionals, and act in the best interest of someone who can no longer fully advocate for themselves. That is a serious responsibility. It deserves plain language, not confusion.

This book also speaks to professionals who work with vulnerable adults, aging individuals, people with disabilities, or families under pressure. Attorneys, social workers, guardians, caregivers, case managers, fiduciaries, and care coordinators often see the same pattern: families want to do the right thing, but they do not always know what that requires.

Inside the book, readers will find guidance on family guardianship, professional guardianship, guardianship of minors, incapacitated adults, mental health guardianship, standby guardianship, property and asset protection, alternatives to guardianship, conservatorship, and court oversight.

At its heart, this book is about dignity. Guardianship should never reduce a person to a file, a hearing, or a checklist. Every decision affects a life, a family, and a future. My goal is to help readers approach that responsibility with care, structure, and respect.

The Memory Box & Charlotte’s Surprise

A children’s story that helps families talk about Alzheimer’s, memory loss, and love that remains.

When someone a child loves begins to forget, the child notices. They may not understand Alzheimer’s. They may not know what dementia means. But they notice when Grandpa repeats a story, forgets a name, loses track of a moment, or looks at them in a way that feels different.

Adults often want to protect children from that pain. So they delay the conversation. They explain around it. They hope the child is too young to notice. But children notice more than we think, and silence can make their fear grow.

I wrote The Memory Box & Charlotte’s Big Surprise to give families a softer way into that conversation.

This picture book follows Charlotte as she tries to understand why her beloved grandpa no longer remembers things the way he once did. Through Charlotte’s eyes, young readers see confusion, sadness, hope, and connection. The story gives children a way to name what they feel without forcing them into heavy medical language.

The Memory Box becomes the center of the story. It gives Charlotte something to hold, build, and share. Photos, keepsakes, familiar objects, and stories help her connect with her grandpa in a way that feels loving and safe. For families, that activity can move beyond the page. Parents, grandparents, teachers, counselors, and caregivers can use a real memory box to help children talk, ask questions, and take part in remembering.

This book is especially helpful for children ages 5 to 10, but its message reaches the whole family. It reminds adults that children do not need perfect explanations. They need honest words, calm reassurance, and permission to keep loving someone even when that person changes.

The story also shows the power of music and familiar memories. Sometimes a song, a picture, or a shared moment can reach places that ordinary words cannot. That does not erase the sadness of memory loss, but it gives families a way to stay connected.

I wanted this book to feel warm, useful, and real. Not frightening. Not clinical. Not distant. Just a story a family can read together when they need help saying something hard.

Parentification: Caregivers In Crisis

An upcoming book about children who carry adult responsibilities too early.

Some children grow up before anyone realizes they were never given a choice.

They become the calm ones in the room. The helper. The fixer. The child who watches a parent’s mood before speaking. The one who cares for siblings, manages household routines, keeps secrets, comforts adults, or holds a family together during illness, grief, addiction, instability, financial pressure, or chronic stress.

People often praise these children as mature. Strong. Responsible. Wise beyond their years.

But there is a cost.

Parentification: Caregivers in Crises gives language to that cost. Coming in Fall 2026, this book explores what happens when a child is pulled into roles meant for adults and how that role reversal can shape childhood, identity, relationships, and adult life.

Parentification does not always look dramatic from the outside. Sometimes it looks like a child making dinner every night because no one else can. Sometimes it looks like a teenager managing a parent’s emotions. Sometimes it looks like a young person becoming the family translator, protector, mediator, or emotional anchor.

There are two common forms. Emotional parentification occurs when a child assumes responsibility for an adult’s feelings, stress, or sense of stability. Instrumental parentification happens when a child takes on adult-level tasks such as caregiving, household management, sibling care, or daily routines that exceed their age and capacity.

This book does not exist to blame families. Many families reach these patterns because support systems fail, crises continue, and adults become overwhelmed by circumstances they never expected. But naming the pattern matters. A child may love their family deeply and still be carrying too much. A parent may be doing their best and still need help seeing what a child has been forced to hold.

I wrote this book for parents, educators, social workers, caregivers, counselors, family professionals, and adults who may finally recognize their own childhood in these pages. It gives readers a way to understand the difference between healthy responsibility and harmful role reversal.

No child should have to become the structure that holds a family together. Children can help. Children can love. Children can contribute. But they should not have to surrender their childhood to survive the needs of everyone around them.

This book is an invitation to notice sooner, respond better, and protect children before silent strength becomes lifelong pain.

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Homer L. Hartage’s books are available through the AgedCare Guardian website and trusted bookstore partners across the United States and internationally, including Amazon, Barnes & Noble, eBay, BAM (Books-A-Million), and ThriftBooks.

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