Epidemiology quantifies risk and reveals associations; ethnography explores the complexities of dementia care. Renade 2, a mixed-method study, tests population-based strategies to improve Alzheimer's diagnosis and prevention in Brazil. In the country's large and diverse territory, field immersion reveals the singularities, hindrances, and tenderness of caring for people living with dementia. This paper drives on field diaries to explore the challenges of families and health professionals dealing with people living with dementia.

In the thread of memories, Luiz recalls: it is hard to take care of his brother in town. The landless settlement provided more solidarity, understanding, and trust. But the specialized care Luiz needed after a heart attack could only be provided downtown. Taking care of himself hindered care of his brother. Nobody else could help - just the two of them remained.Ana brought her mother, a woman from the forest to her small house in the small town on the Marajo Islands. She stringed up a hammock and sleeps on the floor. She talks to her mother about her dead brothers as if they were still living, following her vacant mind. The house is so poor, her gaze so tender.Nazaré is Catholic, her house filled with saints, the Bible, candlelight. The couple had a busy social life. Their children were gone, he fell ill, friendships torn apart. He became bedridden - memory, sex, intestines, nothing no longer works. She remains faithful, a pragmatic caregiver. The day he will be gone is unthinkable; she floats by in accompanied solitude.Suzi and Luiz are community health workers. Throughout the participatory training, they listen attentively, take notes, ask questions - so does mother have dementia? What about the patient who wore a military uniform to arrest neighbours? What about the lady wandering around offering sweets, unable to return home? What about Cecilia, left all by herself in the dark room, her pleading eyes staring at me during family visits? What to do when the whole family is sick? What can I do?Health professionals recognize the importance of dementia, its prevalence, their ignorance: the unpreparedness of the healthcare network. ‘Patients are like nomads’, ‘we need guidance’.Data collection is subtle, sensitive, affectionate. Getting in touch with one's own feelings, allowing oneself to feel pain, anger, tiredness. Acknowledgement. Respect. The researcher, unknown, becoming compass. In cities, countryside, islands, hinterland, in this immense, culturally rich, unequal Brazil, public health policies and the work of community agents affect the perspectives of people living with dementia and their families. The researcher reveals nothing - together we weave scenarios and pathways