My mother died in January of this year; she had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s about a year before she went. Pneumonia took her while she still remembered me and still had many of her long-term memories intact; I thank goodness that she was spared the living hell that she would have gone through with the total degeneration of her once-active mind.
Her diagnosis, of course, got me interested in this horrible condition. In the course of my research, I came across an HBO special on the progress of the disease. It’s beautifully done, which is why I post it here.
Another resource that I found very useful was a novel entitled Still Alice by Lisa Genovia. This was made into a movie starring Julianne Moore in her first Oscar performance.