When my wife and I moved into the area where we live, we joined a church just down the road. Among the many special people we met there were an older couple, George and Eliza. They were a truly loving couple who had married right after the war ended in 1945. George would tell stories us stories about his time in the Navy and working at NASA – including stories about interactions with our nation’s first astronauts – I remember him off-handedly referring to Neil and Buzz in one story about the Apollo program. But I haven’t heard these stories in recent years – a couple of years ago the doctors diagnosed George as having Alzheimer's disease. Now his train of thought is too short to tell such a story is gone. The dementia that comes from the brain damage associated with Alzheimer's, damage caused by the irreversible destruction of brain cells that let him share those wonderful tales. I’ll be honest -- I miss my old friend very much. And I know Eliza does as well.

What can we do for folks like George and Eliza? What can we do for to stop this terrible disease that tears our loved ones away from us while leaving their bodies still present. We can support the Alzheimer's Memory Walk this fall, either by pledging, walking, or serving as a team captain. Too many have lost too much to Alzheimer’s – we need to act now to prevent others from facing the same sad fate.

Posted by: Greg at 01:42 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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