Her Memory Matters

ME:

Joanne is my mother and her life and death inspired me to write this booklet. My mother was my rock, my inspiration, my cheerleader, and my best friend.  Although my mother is no longer on Earth, she is indeed inspiring me to share this journey with others who may be starting down this road.  It’s important to note that this road is long; many times, gently curving around small obstacles while at other times climbing the steeper slopes of healthcare or lack thereof for the Alzheimer's patient.

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MOM:

The doctor told me it’s Alzheimer’s Disease.  For seven years, time had no significance or purpose. I vividly remember my own mother dying from this same fate.  In fact, I never wanted to visit her because she was in that “place”. To be honest I was scared and I didn’t understand anything about her or the facility she was in.  Don’t think there is a magic medication or a pharmaceutical trial that you can be in or that you will heal in time; none of it is true.  You will die.  I tried to outrun the inevitable.  Simply put, Alzheimer’s Disease is a death sentence.

I bought vitamins and memory supplements, I read magazines and bought books and listened to anything that I could to prevent my fate. I ate healthy; I exercised.  I had my yearly physical and eye exams.  I grew and canned my own food as my parents and their parents had done before them.  I thought that I had lived a clean and healthy life.  Would I be able to escape my fate? Honestly, what else could I do? I made my children promise me over and over again that they would never put me in that “place”.  No way was I going to do paper-crafts, color or play that dreadful Bingo game; let alone mingle with strangers and then that thought disappeared.