About the Author – Julie Maxwell
A Story of Love, Art, and Unwavering Strength
Julie Maxwell, being the Author’s Pen Name, is more than just a writer—she is an artist, a mother, and a woman whose life has been shaped by love, resilience, and profound transformation. As an award-winning artist, Julie has spent her life creating beauty through her work. But when her husband, Richard, was diagnosed with dementia, she found herself on a journey she never expected—one of caregiving, loss, and learning to navigate a love that was slowly fading.
Her book, Losing Richard, is a deeply personal account of this journey, offering an honest and heartfelt reflection on what it means to love someone through the cruel progression of dementia. Through her words, Julie gives a voice to the often-unspoken struggles of caregivers and the quiet grief of watching a loved one disappear, even as they remain physically present.
A Life Shaped by Love and Creativity
Julie story is one of passion and perseverance. As a loving wife and mother, she cultivated a life filled with love, adventure, and creativity. Her bond with Richard was strong, evolving through shared laughter, dreams, and an unbreakable connection to create their world together. Their journey meandered through the bliss of marriage, the trials of raising a child with a disability, and painfully into the reality of Richard’s diagnosis.
As an artist, she had always viewed the world through a unique lens, discovering beauty in light and shadow. Once caregiving became her reality, she took to writing to catch glimpses of how her heart ached, joyfully turning her anguish into poetry.
Why She Wrote Losing Richard
Dementia reshapes reality. It changes relationships, scorns endurance, and thrusts caregivers into roles they scarcely could have imagined. Julie’s Losing Richard writes as a memoir but is more than that; it seeks to offer consolation and solace to others travelling down this same road.
This book is her way of saying:
You are not alone.
Your grief is real, and it matters.
Love exists even in the hardest moments.
Her journey is not just about loss—it is about love that endures, even in the face of heartbreaking change.