Hello everyone!!
Welcome to my agilon health- Jackson team page. I am honored to be the team captain for our Jackson, Tennessee Walk to End Alzheimer's team. Our local walk is scheduled for Saturday October 7th, and I would love to have you join us in supporting this worthy cause.
Alzheimer's disease is horrible. There are no other words to express how bad it truly is. What it does to a person, stripping them of who they are and the hurt it causes their loved ones is devastating. It takes away from each of us the most important thing we all share, our memories. Our memories of family celebrations, moments of love and laughter together, and those special little nuances that make us who we are as an individual.
I can share all of this with some confidence because I have experienced the devastation it can cause firsthand. The picture on my page above, is that of my grandmother, Wilma Kathryn Barcroft. Known to all of us as "Big Mama". She lived next door to us growing up and was a part of our everyday childhood. She was everything you could have asked for in a Big Mama! She could bake a cake, sew your doll new clothes, or sit and rock you to sleep while watching the Price Is Right on a hot summer day. I am blessed for every minute that we got to share with her.
My grandmother began to experience memory loss in her early 70's. Nothing extremely alarming at first, but as things progressed my mother (also a RN) noticed the changes in Big Mama were not the normal things you would associate with "normal" aging or normal age-related memory loss. It was more. It changed her personality, created anxiety and paranoia. By the age of 76, the challenges of her care, the constant exhaustion and fears for her safety (she liked to wonder off) and the emotional toil of watching your loved one mentally and physically disappear had finally done enough damage. For more safety and support memory care housing was needed. As the years progressed, she continued to deteriorate until she lost the ability to speak. The heartbreak of seeing your Big Mama, once so full of life, independent and hardworking, lose her last ability to communicate with anyone she knew or loved, is just one example of how savage this disease is. My Big Mama was finally free from the ravages of her battle with Alzheimer's on Dec 22nd of 2003.
The research, education and patient/family resources that the Alzheimer's Association provides helps improve the lives of all of those effected by this horrible disease. We have hope that one day there will be a cure! No more lost memories! No more years lost with our loved ones.
Until then, we ask that you consider supporting this wonderful cause and join us on Oct 7th for our Jackson Walk to End Alzheimer's.
#ENDALZFORBIGMAMA
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