Ma (my grandma) sat me down when I was three years old on the piano bench and taught me how to play. We started with the two songs I think almost everyone knows how to play on piano whether you play or not; Chopsticks and Heart & Soul. I went on to love music taking piano lessons, voice lessons, studied music education and music therapy, and have been using music ever since in my career.
24 years later, I sat her next to me at the piano in her wheelchair and we played those same two songs. She could not speak much, she had no idea who I was, her hands were mostly clenched except a few outstretched fingers but she used those fingers to play along with me. Not all the right notes but the rhythm was still there.
Two months later she passed away.
I have watched this disease progress in not only my grandmother but in the many residents I have worked with on a daily basis. I watched families including my own see their loved one completely disappear. People who were Doctors, Congress Woman, Lawyers, Nurses, and everything in between who no longer know their own name or how to hold a fork.
When most think of Alzheimer's they imagine an older person who becomes a little forgetful. They don't picture a 55 year old mother who will never see her daughter get married or meet her grandchildren. Or maybe you think it could never happen to my dad because he's a doctor and uses his brain every day but yet a 85 year old surgeon who was top of his field is now unable to speak or use his hands. A Politician who doesn't recognize her own children and forgets her own name. An architect who doesn't even remember he has a wife and so she has to introduce herself like a stranger every time she visits him.
Alzheimer's is not stopping. It does not discriminate against age so it is up to us to raise awareness and funds to advance the fight against the disease— funds that allow the Alzheimer’s Association to provide 24/7 care and support while accelerating critical research. I hope you will join me by donating and joining me at the Nashville Walk or the Walk in your City!
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