Hello and thank you to all of my wonderful website members who made this trip possible financially, and the rest of you great people who made it possible with your emotional support. I could not have done it without either.
I will have a lot to tell you in what will most likely be a two part blog. However, one thing I know for sure is that nothing will be written today. Those of you who have attended the Forum know what a physically exhausting experience it is, so this little ole lady can be found lying down resting for the next 12 hours or so.
As I write this, Coco is on her 2nd of 3 different flights that will get her home to Hawaii. She is going to be quite jet lagged for awhile.
One story I would like to share with you now. There were 1100 delegates from all 50 states attending this year. When we made our Capitol Hill visits, we were all wearing big purple sashes with the words, Alzheimer's Association on them. We were easily recognizable all over DC. Every delegate I met came back from their day on the Hill with the same story. There was always someone in an elevator, on the street, or in a corridor who would come up to us and say - "Thank you for doing this. My [ insert relative's name] has/had Alzheimer's Disease."
Joan It was such a pleasure to have breakfast with you on Monday. I only wish that I had more time with you and the others who went from this site. I would like to talk or send you and email about my experience at the forum. I will wait until you post your blog and talk more on here about it. I will say I was overwhelmed by all the advocates there. I to encountered so many people during my trip who would come up and had a personal connection to this disease. I am so glad that everyone made it home safely. I had about 15 people on my flight back to Georgia who had attended the forum. I met many spouses whose loved one has AD. I told all of them about your site. My hope is that they also come here for support. They were very excited to hear of it. Thank you all again for being supportive and sharing here.
After a day filled with errands, I came home to write a DC blog and post pictures, but we're having very strong thunderstorms with high winds, so I am not going to turn on the computer until this is all over. I am writing this on my tablet, but I don't know how long my Internet is going to hold up with all of these storms.
Can't wait to tell you what we said to the legislators and their aides. Believe me, all 1100 of our voices were heard loud and clear.
And news of The Alzheimer Website and our "unique" issues was not only spread far and wide, but very well received. Coco and I discussed this website with everyone we met, who told others, who told others, until someone I met told me she had heard about the website from someone at the Forum.