I did not even know that Maria Shriver has a Alzheimer's blog on her website, but I was contacted and asked to write something for it about my AD experience. I did author a piece and I am sharing it with you. :-)
Jim, that is an excellent article - I am so glad that you were able to write it; I agree with you, the true cost of life from Alzheimer's disease is not recorded. Statistics do lie!
Jim, Thanks for sharing your story as you did. The phrase "dying with Alzheimer's, but not from Alzheimer's" needs to be used more often. I'd like to see it start appearing in obituaries. Thanks, again.
Fabulous article. Well written. Excellent. I would like to send it to as many people and organizations as possible. Do I have your permission to do so?
I have sold mom & dad's house so for the past month every weekend I have been carrying out 'stuff' and just bringing it to my house. Very little sorting, just lifting & carrying. People have asked for pictures for one reason or another (they do that after a death) BUT I cant find them. The boxes are scattered and even digging through a known box takes too much time. These are pictures mom had kept on her dresser. (she must have liked them)
The pictures are actually from our second wedding. Our first wedding was a very quick affair in a civil ceremony, the only attendees were my parents. No pictures were taken.
Being very Catholic Rita wanted a church wedding but the local parish was not cooperative ("We cant schedule a June Saturday wedding for 3-4 years!" Not that we wanted that) FINALLY she found a cooperative priest who understood that she wanted a church 'blessing' not a big ceremony.
It was then scheduled and happened at the 5:30PM mass on a Saturday. There were 200-300 people in the church but only about 15-20 people that we invited. ;-)
So five years after the legal ceremony Rita got her religious ceremony and the entire congregation seemed to have fun at the different kind of Saturday Mass.