Each year in April, we recognize volunteers and community partners who have made an incredible impact on our work. Congratulations to this year’s award recipients highlighted below. Continue reading Congratulations To Our 2021 Award Recipients
Don Desonier became an Alzheimer’s Association volunteer after losing his wife, Nancy, to early-onset dementia. This year, he is participating in The Longest Day® in her honor. A woman of grace, beauty and limitless love Don’s wife, Nancy, was a professional flute performer and teacher, having graduated from UCLA with a degree in flute performance. Little did she know that her talent and love for … Continue reading My Journey in Honoring Nancy: The Longest Day
By Mark Donham The following is an excerpt from Mark Donham’s chapter in The Moment Collectors: Twenty Travellers’ Tales From Around the World. It has been adapted for the purposes of the ALZWA Blog. Mark is a long-time Alzheimer’s advocate and is currently a board member for the Alzheimer’s Association Washington State Chapter. I was riding and exploring the dusty gravel roads of six countries … Continue reading The True Value of Travel
By Glenn Jacobs, Puyallup, Wash. Hi there, my name is Glenn. It has been three-and-half years since my wife, Pam passed away from Alzheimer’s. We were married in 1969, so it was a long time that we had been married. We first learned about her diagnosis only three years prior to her death, so that wasn’t a very long time at all. It was a … Continue reading Things I Miss: Making Every Minute Count
By Brady Jensen My mom’s 10-year decline with Alzheimer’s disease began when she was 55 and ended last year. I miss her more than anything and have for the last few years. On Valentine’s day last year, I was snowed in and started writing down my thoughts. My mom used to make my brothers and me foot-by-foot pink heart-shaped sugar cookies topped with a cursive-frosting … Continue reading My First Valentine: There’s No Love Like a Mother’s Love
By: Amanda Johanson Hi, my name is Amanda Johanson. My father, Mark, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s two-and-a-half years ago at the age of 61. Alzheimer’s runs in my family on my dad’s side. Both my grandma and great aunt passed away from Alzheimer’s — although they didn’t receive their diagnosis until much later in life. My dad graduated from Purdue University with an engineering … Continue reading Finding Support: Facing My Dad’s Diagnosis
This article was originally published in the Summer 2021 issue of ALZ, a magazine of the Alzheimer’s Association. ALZ magazine shares inspiration and information about the fight to end Alzheimer’s — and offers tips on how to make your brain the focus of a healthy lifestyle. Subscribe today to get the next issue delivered right to your mailbox! Food can create snapshots in time — … Continue reading Around the Table with Brian Canlis
By: Emily Bennett, Kenmore Thanksgiving 2020Thanksgiving after a year of loss, loss for the world outside and loss for me. My husband’s dementia has increased and the man who was once chief of staff, wrote four books and was often an after-dinner speaker at events cannot use his cell phone, follow a program on TV or remember his grandchildren. He is also declining physically in … Continue reading Giving Thanks: We Count Our Blessings
By: Craig Cottingham Craig and his wife, Randie, lived together in Bothell, Wash. for over 40 years. Randie now resides in Kirkland, Wash. at an adult family home. When I look back at how my wife Randie and I struggled with her dementia, some of the solutions were counterintuitive. At one point, she surmised that all the pieces of bark and dirt she was picking … Continue reading Looking Back: A Lesson Learned as a Caregiver for My Wife
By: Rita Carlson Learning about the Walk to End Alzheimer’s It is my privilege and honor to be a part of the Alzheimer’s Association’s North Idaho Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Coeur d’Alene for the third year in a row. My mother moved to Coeur d’Alene in 2019, and I happened to see a flyer at her memory care community. I asked the staff if I … Continue reading For My Amazing Mother: Why I Walk
