Alzheimer’s not only alters the lives of people with the disease but also the lives of those who care for them. The journey can be just as emotionally and physically demanding for caregivers, but that mental and physical stress is often overlooked because the focus is on the patient.

When Geri Taylor, 72, learned she had Alzheimer’s, her husband, Jim, became “uncommunicative for two weeks,” he said. Then they sat together, talked it through and planned out their next steps, they told N. R. Kleinfield of The New York Times in his article “Fraying at the Edges.” The disease, in an unexpected way, strengthened their marriage, Mr. Taylor said.