Every morning I wake up missing my wife. I find myself longing for the woman I fell in love with those many years ago. She was my partner in raising our two daughters and helping me face life’s travails.

Every day I am grateful for and accept how much of Sharon is still here. The hardest thing to get used to is that Alzheimer’s has been and will continue to be relentless in taking away bits of her. That and the knowledge that right now there isn’t a cure. The only medicines that kind of work are for those in the early stages of this disease. There are no new medicines available that will either halt or reverse the progression for anyone like Sharon, who are in the middle stages of Alzheimer’s.

Every night before we go to sleep, we tell each other that we love the other. That is, we both said this before Alzheimer’s. Most of the time when I tell her that I love her, Sharon will say that she likes me too. Sometimes that she likes me very much. I treasure these but not nearly as much as the rare times when she says that she loves me. 

This is why Sharon and I, along with the rest of the Roses for Sharon team, will be taking part in our third Walk to End Alzheimer’s this fall. With your support, those who will have Alzheimer’s in the future will have a better chance of battling this life-stealing disease. The funds we raise help in finding medicines to slow down or halt Alzheimer’s progression. There may come a time when there is cure a for those with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia.

Our team name is a play off of the stanza 'I am a rose of Sharon, a lily of the valleys' from King Solomon’s Song of Songs. Like the colors of the flowers of the plant's many varieties, Roses of Sharon is made up those who are or have been affected by Alzheimer's.