But I'm getting ahead of myself. I want to share this story with you--the story behind the story. Here it is:
My zombie story “Mace Was Here” is dedicated to a woman I work with. Her name isn’t really Gloria, but that’s what we’ll call her, to protect the innocent.
It was probably two years ago that Gloria’s father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The family didn’t know what to think, because his symptoms were atypical. Or maybe “atypical” isn’t the right word. Maybe we just don’t hear about cases like his as often as we hear about…
Well, take my ex’s parents, for example. His father’s Alzheimer’s progressed rapidly, from mild forgetfulness to a full-blown case of not recognizing his three children. After his father died, his mother carved her own lonely path through Alzheimer’s. Hers was a quick progression, as well. Quiet and lost.
Gloria’s dad was a horse of a different color. He was lost, but not quiet. All his life he’d been a calm and friendly man. Suddenly, in his older years, he grew quarrelsome, consumed by rage, and then downright violent. He started hitting his wife. She was frightened and baffled, because this was not the man she’d married almost sixty years ago.
The family had no idea Alzheimer’s could play out like this. Gloria’s father was hospitalized after injuring himself. In hospital, he had to be restrained after attacking a nurse.
A social worker became involved, but Gloria’s mother lost hope fast. What could she do? She couldn’t lock him away—he was her husband, for Christ’s sake. But she couldn’t live with a man who posed such her such imminent physical danger.
Ultimately, the family got him into a long-term care facility, which seemed to be the best option. It didn’t take long for the violent symptoms of his disease to surface again, and the family was asked to find him a more suitable residence. He died before arrangements could be made.
Gloria’s parents provided the inspiration for “Mace Was Here.” That probably sounds weird or perhaps even insensitive, but every time I reflected on their ordeal, I thought about zombies. Gloria’s father was a person, not a monster, and yet the people who knew him only as a violent patient probably didn’t get much glimpse at his humanity.
In my story, Nathan can’t let go of his zombified boyfriend. He can’t hand Mace over to a system that will see him solely as his disease. He doesn’t trust anyone but himself to look at the love of his life and remember that, although there isn’t much evidence of the man he used to be, “Mace Was Here.”
As for Gloria, days after her father’s death, her mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Gloria's mother died fewer than fourteen days after her husband.
Sometimes the true stories are the most heartrending.
On that note, don't you want to run right out and buy a zombie romance? If you answered yes, and you want to find out how a sad story like this can translate into paranormal fiction, you can purchase a copy of my story "Mace Was Here" from Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00PJJOI64 or Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00PJJOI64
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