Ruth Weidemeyer would drive home from visiting her parents, both suffering from Alzheimer’s Disease, praying, “Please, God, don’t let him (Dad) forget Mom and me.”
That may be one of the most insidious effects of Alzheimer’s — when people forget even those closest to them.
Weidemeyer has a video of her father talking to his “friend” in the bathroom mirror, then wondering where he went when he opens the “window.” He didn’t recognize himself. She uses it to illustrate her talks at Alzheimer’s meetings and seminars.
She has a lot of experience in coping with loved ones who have come down with Alzheimer’s or related forms of dementia. The number of cases in her adopted family is staggering. Fourteen have died with the disease and another 11 are still living with it. That total starts with a great-grandmother in about 1965 or 1966.
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