Lee Wardlow

Before I Lose You Lee Wardlow

Let me introduce myself... I'm Gracie Haines, single mother, tattoo artist, black sheep of the Haines family. My teachers always said I marched to the beat of my own drum. I was never like my older brother Tray or my younger brother Trevor. I just wasn't born with the gene to be organized and disciplined. I was free-spirited. I loved my life. My mother Barbie Haines, not so much. I'm the misfit in a family of highly educated, conservative people. I'm still considered Daddy's little girl though. He loves me no matter what craziness I decide on including apprenticing under Cash Hart a successful tattoo artist in Millville, Ohio. My small hometown. I have been crushing on Cash since I was just a kid. He's the uncle of my best friend, Jessie who also works for Cash as his receptionist. That is how I became the apprentice in his tattoo shop. I've been with him now nearly eleven years. He's made me into the successful artist I am. Sticking with him, will take me places that my family can't understand because they don't understand the tattoo business. My life has always been like this. Flying by the seat of my pants. Taking leaps of faith. It's worked well for me even though I butt heads with Mom at every opportunity she has to tell me where I'm screwing up especially where raising her grandson, Jet is concerned. Dementia will change everything about our family. Dad's diagnosis will define our lives and mold our relationships into something different than what we have always known. Who knows maybe Barbie Haines, my mother and I will find common ground now that we are both faced with losing the one man, we both love more than anyone else in the world, Alex Haines?Dual story about the effects of dementia on a family and a love story between two people who need each other.