My mother died with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in 1999 after many difficult years. My mother-in-law also died with Alzheimer’s in 1989 after 12 years of decline. Mary, then my wife of 48 years, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in Sep of 2001. What had been a wonderful life together became a nightmare. It was like starting life all over again, but with different rules. Dealing with numerous doctors, tests, medications, and Mary’s loss of ability to do even ordinary things and exploding with unheard-of behaviors turned life upside down. It was devastating to Mary, physically demanding and expensive – Alzheimer’s disease ended a wonderful life. This beautiful, talented, gracious, special lady just wasted away. Worse, perhaps, was the knowledge that 100 years after Dr. Alois Alzheimer defined Alzheimer’s disease there was and is no cure – nothing that even slows Alzheimer’s or helps much. It’s like falling into a bottomless pit with no escape.
I walk to raise funds to find a cure and to raise awareness of this awful disease. I Walk to End Alzheimer’s. I walk because “One Day There Will Be A Cure”.
Alzheimer's Association Southeastern Virginia Chapter 