Deborah Forrest (1950- )was born in Maryville, Tennessee to older parents. Her early years were shaped by an extended family of white-headed elders who were fond of imparting choice words of wisdom gleaned from their own lives in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. For twenty-four years Deborah worked as a Registered Nurse and a biomedical laser researcher. In 1995 she completed her doctoral degree in clinical health psychology and began working in the fields of aging and spirituality. In 2002 her ground-breaking book "Symphony of Spirits: Encounters with the Spiritual Dimensions of Alzheimer's became an international best seller. Her newly released book "Touch the Spirit: Connecting to the Inner World of Dementia" details many new ways to open a window into the memory banks of a person with dementia. She moves beyond discussions about dementia of the Alzheimer's type to include stories of persons with dementias created by other conditions like Pick's disease, Fronto-temporal lobe disease, Lewy Bodies disease, Vascular disease/Strokes, Parkinson's disease, Huntington disease,Traumatic Brain injuries/Shaken Brain Syndrome/CTE, HIV/AIDS, "Chemo-brain",Open-Heart Surgery induced dementia and Sports-Related brain injuries.