The Diary - A. M. Frow

Found by Paul's daughter, Leanne, his last words form the cornerstone of the coroner's inquest into the death of her grandfather James, and with trepidation, on day two of the inquest, she reads her dead fathers final words to those assembled.After Paul's marriage had fallen apart his options were limited. Not wanting to spend his final days in a hospice, he is forced to return to the family home and become his father's carer, despite his own worsening illness. Abused verbally and physically, first as a child, and once again as an adult, Paul's only solace is his writing. The Diary.As the diary progresses, secrets are revealed and ghosts laid bare, all while Paul's father, James' dementia worsens. Paul, once hoping to see one last Christmas, pours his heart into the diary with increasing despair, before finally accepting his fate.A raw, emotionally-filled recounting of the last days of Paul, abandoned by local services and left to tend his father alone, with both their deaths looming ever closer.

'The Diary', is a literary fiction in the genre of a family/psychological drama, and written in an epistolary format. It recounts the final days between a father with dementia and a son, the unwitting carer, dying of cancer.