Welcome to Kevin's Ink
I’m early in the process of writing a memoir about my relationship with my wife Penny from the day we met to today, as she lingers in the late stage of Alzheimer’s disease. I've started a Substack newsletter, Kevin’s Ink, that will include posts about our life together both before and after Alzheimer’s changed our lives, and about my challenges and progress on the book.
It will be something of a meta-memoir: writing in real-time about the process of writing my memoir and making sense of our lives.
This website is still under construction, and may be for a while. Visit me at Kevin's Ink on Substack.
Kevin M. Kennedy
Sunset over Rehobeth Bay in Delaware, September 2019
(photo by Kevin M. Kennedy)
About Kevin & Penny
Penny and I met in 1986 when the small Denver office of the environmental consulting firm we both worked for won a big contract to investigate hazardeous waste at Rocky Mountain Arsenal. Penny moved east from Sacramento and I moved west from New Jersey.
We bonded over skiing, finding our way from the bunny slopes to the blue squares. My first gift to her was a black diamond run. She gave me Rising from the Plains by John McPhee in return. We loved the same music, movies, and plays. We learned to kayak together. We went to Nuggets games.
When I left for graduate school at Berkeley a couple of years later, Penny found a job in the East Bay, happy to be back in California. Penny left her job and started a one-woman consulting firm. I finished my degree in eventually went to work for the state government, where I worked on energy and climate policy.
Alzheimer's started to come for her in 2004.
Today, I’m still with Penny. We hold hands when I visit her in her memory care home in Maryland; I play music and sing along, read to her, and feed her.
Alzheimer's has taken so much from both of us.
My memoir will explore what we had, what we lost, and how I'm trying to build my life after Penny while holding her close.
(Photo by Kevin's father, James Kennedy, circa 1990)
