After some crazy back and forth emails tossing around ideas, it was decided. We would run for an hour at a time on a high school track, alternating shifts for the entire 16 hours of daylight on the longest day of the year. Why? As a way of turning our passion for running into a fundraiser for The Longest Day – a sunrise-to-sunset event to raise funds and awareness for Alzheimer’s care, support and research. [...]
“This Is Our Life” is the final line of a production entitled “Resurrection” that my husband Steve and I have been a part of with our church singing group for the past 17 years. During the last song, everyone in the congregation holds a candle that is lit from a single candle that stands alone on the altar. As each candle is lit, we watch the church go from dark to light. The first year we performed, a small group of us got together and pitched in—sewing costumes, rehearsing and doing whatever [...]
My mother Judy Gelfand lost her mind more than nine years ago to Alzheimer’s — a disease that robbed our entire family as we all stood by watching her slowly fade away. Judy died in her bedroom on July 13, 2004, in Palm Springs, Calif., surrounded by her family — our Dad, Marshall, my brothers, Todd, and Dean, and me. Eight years later — almost to the day — we all surrounded her again as [...]
10 years ago this August, my dad, Don MacLeod, lost his fight for life to complications from Alzheimer’s. I miss my Dad very much. He endured a seven-year progression with this disease, and we went through seeing him change and loose his sense of self and family. I especially remember the day my Dad couldn’t remember my Mom’s name, who had passed away several years earlier. It was a heart breaking experience — made more [...]
Today is the longest day of the year — and as evening sets, Alzheimer’s advocates across the globe are pushing themselves to the finish line of a 16-hour endurance relay to raise awareness and funds for the fight against Alzheimer’s. This event, Alzheimer’s Association The Longest Day™, and the dedication it requires holds such significance for those who have been affected by Alzheimer’s disease. It symbolizes the endurance, love, patience and strength it takes to [...]
My name is Judy Johanson and today, our team, “This Is Our Life,” is participating in Alzheimer’s Association The Longest Day™! For me, the event is both personal and universal. My amazing husband (and best friend) Steve was diagnosed last fall (on what felt like the longest day) with younger-onset Alzheimer’s disease, just one month shy of his 59th birthday. Just five years ago, his mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease. It has been a [...]
Today, I’m joining the fight against Alzheimer’s by running around a high school track with my best friend. I’ll run for an hour, she’ll run for an hour. And we’ll continue like that all day long. We’re doing it because we want to raise awareness, money, and hope that one day we’ll live in a world without Alzheimer’s. I’m also doing it to honor my grandmother. My grandma, who we all called Bami, was a [...]
My name is Rene Tamayo and today I am walking for my mother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in 2008. I am charting a course (6 p.m.-10 p.m.) that will take me by quite a few of the special places that my mom and I enjoyed hanging out when she was able to. I am starting today at our family home in Brownsville, Texas, the place where I was born and I have so [...]
My name is Kathy Ritchie and I am participating in Alzheimer’s Association The Longest Day™ because it’s an opportunity to shine a spotlight on a disease that has defined my life for the last eight years or 2,920 days. My mother has Frontotemporal dementia. It’s a lesser-known brain disorder and one that is frequently misdiagnosed. It affects the part of the brain that makes us who we are. Call it your personality center. Like many [...]
I am participating in Alzheimer’s Association The Longest Day™ in honor of my Grandpa Darrah, who died with Alzheimer’s disease. In the summer of 2010, I participated in the Alzheimer’s Association Breakthrough Ride™, where more than 55 researchers cycled relay-style across the country to collect petition signatures asking Congress to make Alzheimer’s disease a national priority. Now I ride again, in support of funding and awareness for Alzheimer’s disease. My experience as a Breakthrough Rider [...]
