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My wife is a caregiver and has worked as such for 20+ years. We've both seen how horrible Alzheimer's is for the person going through it (some knowing something's wrong and some not), the family and the caregivers. It truly is a heartbreaking thing. The couple you described could have been any of several that we've met if they had been a bit older. Beautiful work!

For grammar, sentence structure, subject-verb agreement, word usage, etc., by all means, YES, a general composition course will help. As far as creativity, that cannot be taught, only encouraged. Go forth and write - like Bronx said. Although she knows how I feel about that 2,000 words a day deal -- I don't have enough time for 200 words most of the days.

I heard about this contest years ago, it's named for the author of some real dogs of first sentences of a story. You've heard his most famous phrase, used by Snoopy at his typewriter: "It was a dark and stormy night..." What I didn't know was that the contest is still going on! You can read many of the past winners at the site. The actual deadline for this year's award is in two weeks, but they accept entries year round so don't worry. They have multiple categories from adventure to romance to purple prose and the max entries a year is really high so I highly encourage people to take a look. Last year's winner was an engineer. Fiction opening contest (and let us know if you place!)

Oops, she doesn't die, but her brain tumor is revealed. As for Amy being the surrogate, that comes in a few chapters later. The next couple of chapters deal with how everyone actually becomes part of the family. Even though you know Suzy, Vella, and Zoey, you haven't met them yet!

For Indigo: Thank you! This is one of my own favorites, although I'm generally my own harshest critic. What I really, really love is seeing what readers get from my stories, and I do love where it took you. Thank you again! You've made this author very happy.