No GPS on Memory Lane is where caregivers, family members, and accidental crisis managers come to feel seen. Host Valerie Wilde blends storytelling, expert advice, and laugh-or-cry moments from the front lines of dementia and elder care. It’s part support group, part survival guide, and part honest conversation about what it really means to care for someone who's forgetting the way.
Send a text My mom says she feels lonely — forgotten — locked away from the world. And yet, she chooses not to leave her room. Not for meals. Not for activities. Not even when we offer to go with her. In this episode, I talk about the complicated reality of loving someone who is safe, cared for, and still deeply isolated — and how some patterns of loneliness don’t begin with illness, but quietly precede it. This is a conversation about ambiguous grief, boundaries, and the hard truth tha...
5 Jan 2026
Episode 8: When the Caregiver Needs Care
Send a text Sometimes caregiving asks more of us than we realize — until our own bodies tap us on the shoulder and say, “It’s your turn.” After a three-month pause, I’m back to talk about why I had to step away: navigating my own health challenges, learning what it means to stop pouring from an empty cup, and finding my way back without everything being neatly resolved. This episode isn’t about having answers — it’s about giving ourselves permission to rest, reset, and return when we can. If ...
24 Sept 2025
Episode 7: Fish, Face, and Other Notes
Send a text Dementia isn’t just grief and red tape. Sometimes, it’s sitcoms, imaginary fish, and your mom asking why her face keeps disappearing. In this episode, I share some of the most memorable, surreal, and unexpectedly tender things my mom has said over the last two years. These quotes—these “notes”—are fragments of her changing reality, but they still carry her voice, her humor, and her heart. From wedding venues that don’t exist, to heartfelt confusion about whether she still has a se...
10 Sept 2025
Episode 6: “Good Days Are Still Hard”
Send a text What do you do when your loved one with dementia has a “good day”—but it still hurts? In this episode, I talk about the strange emotional terrain of almost. When my mom remembers something… and then forgets it 20 minutes later. When she smiles, laughs, even calls me by name—but still believes she needs to leave for work in the morning. These are the days that look like progress from the outside, but carry a quiet grief on the inside. Because sometimes the hardest part of dementia ...
28 Aug 2025
Episode 5: Calling from the Hostage Situation
Send a text What do you do when your mom calls from the nursing home and says she’s being held hostage by her ex-boyfriend from 15 years ago? In this episode, I talk about the stage of caregiving no one prepares you for: 👉 the daily phone calls 👉 the delusions 👉 and the emotional whiplash of comforting someone inside a reality you can’t share. I also talk about what it feels like to become your parent’s emotional anchor—and the strange comfort that comes from being the perso...
15 Aug 2025
Episode 4: Wernicke What? My Mom’s Diagnosis—and the 12 Days That Changed Everything
Send a text When my mom was suddenly hospitalized for confusion, delusions, and memory loss, I didn’t know what we were facing. But within days, a neurologist gave us a name: Wernicke Encephalopathy. A rare, often alcohol-related brain injury caused by a severe Vitamin B1 deficiency. I’d never heard of it. I didn’t know what it meant. But I did know one thing—we had 14 days to find out if she would come back to us. In this episode, I share what those 14 days were like. The hope, ...
15 Aug 2025
Special 1: The Three Legal Documents Every Family Needs with Elder Care Attorney John Saccoccia
Send a text When someone you love is diagnosed with dementia, everything changes—fast. And one of the most urgent (and overwhelming) questions becomes: Who has the legal right to help them? In this episode, I sit down with elder care attorney John Saccoccia to break down the three essential legal documents every family should have in place before a crisis: ✅ Healthcare Power of Attorney📄 Living Will💵 Durable Financial Power of AttorneyJohn explains what each document does, why timing is every...
30 Jul 2025
Episode 3: 2020 in Hindsight
Send a text Before the diagnosis, there were warning signs—only we didn’t know they were warnings yet. In this episode, I revisit the slow unraveling that began long before my mom’s official diagnosis. From forgetting how to unlock her phone to abandoning frozen dinners and doctor follow-ups, her world was quietly changing—and I was already stepping into the caregiver role without realizing it. If you’ve ever looked back and thought, How did I miss it?—this one’s for you. Support the show
23 Jul 2025
Episode 2: Just Me and Mom and the VFW
Send a text Before the diagnosis, before the confusion, before the daily calls from the nursing home—there was just me and my mom. In this episode, I take you back to the before. To the childhood memories of buffet lunches, breakroom nail polish experiments, and blue retail vests three sizes too big. You'll meet my mom not as a patient, but as the strong, funny, stubborn woman who raised me—through foot surgeries, rheumatoid arthritis, and Monday Ponderosa runs with Grandma. Because before yo...
23 Jul 2025
Episode 1: It Started with a Phone Charger
Send a text The night everything changed—and I didn’t even know it yet. Support the show
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