My brother John was diagnosed with dementia, following in our father’s footsteps. Originally believed to be from Alzheimers, John’s dementia actually was later diagnosed as Lewy Bodies Dementia.
John was in his mid-70’s when he and his wife moved from California to Nashville to be near their daughter Amy. My brother went from being a fully engaged human being - a husband, a father, a son and brother, a CEO of an international company, a sportsman who loved to golf, fish and hunt and would travel all over the country with friends to do so, and still connected to his best friends from high school – to needing a white board to tell him what day it was and when to take his medication. Once a man who made a potter’s bench from scratch for his wife, to who had forgotten how to use the very tools that helped him build it.
Come April 2018 and move day was upon us. While the many boxes were being unpacked and tossed into the garage, it was my brother’s and my job to be break down the boxes, sort the wrapping paper, load them into the Jeep and take them to the recycling center for disposal. It was during this time that I saw my brother, once again, work with purpose, laugh when he would lose his box cutter for the fifth time, engage in conversation about his new home, or tell me a story about something we discovered while unpacking the garage.
It was here that I grasped we humans can and still want to contribute to our lives and maybe the lives of others.
One Journey to Create A New World for Dementia | Amy LaGrant | TEDxFranklin
