In 2006, Kimberly Williams-Paisley’s mother was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, a rare form of dementia, which led the actress to write a memoir discussing her family’s journey of dealing with the disease.

The Warren County Public Library hosted Williams-Paisley on Tuesday at Knicely Conference Center, where she presented, discussed and signed her book, “Where the Light Gets In: Losing My Mother Only to Find Her Again.” This is Paisley’s first book, and she said it is a love letter to her mother.

“In 2012, when we put my mom into a long-term care facility, I started to think about what to do with all these pieces that felt for so long like a tragedy,” Williams-Paisley said. “This book was really therapeutic for me to write. Selfishly, I learned so much about what the story was and what I thought of it by writing it down.”

Williams-Paisley shared excerpts from the book that consisted of memories of her mother before the disease, the challenges her family faced, mistakes and moments of joy. She first noticed that there was a problem with her mom on her wedding day when she was upset that she wasn’t involved in the ceremony. Williams-Paisley, who is married to country music star Brad Paisley, said they gave her a Bible passage to read at the last minute, and it took her awhile to get through it.

“She got up and she froze and she wasn’t able to get through it. She kept going back to the front of the line and repeating things. My sister was on the other side, we were on both sides of my mom, and both of us wanted to reach out and help her through it,” Williams-Paisley said. “Looking back, that was the first time I’ve ever seen something like that from her because she used to get up in front of people all the time.”

Williams-Paisley also discussed the problems she faced with being a caretaker of her children as well as a caretaker for her mother and read an excerpt describing a situation that involved her mother almost dropping her son while he was still a baby. She then explained what she learned about dealing with someone who’s changing and that the most healing part of the journey was learning to love her mom in any way.

Bowling Green resident Margaret Howard came to the event because her mother has dementia. She said she learned that you have to find humor and not to have guilt in finding humor.

“We have a lot of guilt when we giggle about it (and) to know that other people are in the same situation and some of the ideas to kind of help you ease through it if there is a way,” Howard said.

Western Kentucky University sophomore Samantha McCarty of Bowling Green attended the event with her mom and sister, saying her family is sure that her great-grandparents are on the verge of Alzheimer’s.

“I feel like (Williams-Paisley’s) situation was more difficult than ours at this time, but it will gradually get to that,” McCarty said.

Russellville resident Larry Dotson enjoyed the event and hearing about Williams-Paisley’s experiences and how she worked through it.

“I can understand where she’s coming from. When your parents are that age you don’t expect it. Things are going to happen, and when we’re young we don’t think anything about that,” Dotson said.

— Follow faith/general assignments reporter Simone C. Payne on Twitter @SimonePayne or visit bgdailynews.com.