Why I Walk
Like so much in life, the “why” of something is always complicated, not unlike dementia and Alzheimer’s. Reasons and the roller coaster of impacts change from day to day. No two journeys are the same, nor are the reasons one will walk.
For me, I initially walked to first honor, and now to memorialize my wife, Isabel Pickett. Like so many unsung and soon-to-be heroes, Isabel found herself with a diagnosis of Early Onset Alzheimer’s. Whether Early Onset Alzheimer’s or dementia, none are diagnoses one will ever expect to have, let alone deal with as it spreads to every second of every day. Facing this diagnosis, Isabel did what every hero would, to summon the strength to face it, with all the humility, dread, thirst for life, and love that Isabel could muster.
As that heroic legacy continues to live on, I walk as I did before, to stand and be counted, when Isabel could no longer. But there’s the rub, clarity behind the reason to walk now takes on different perspectives and is not so one-dimensional. Just as the disease presses to take our collective loved ones from us, we find new “whys to walk.”
We all have different journeys, but we are bound by a thread that is deep and must be nurtured. It requires us to stand and be counted for everyone’s loved ones. It demands us to touch all our lives with compassion and caring. Making moments, no matter how short in time, be huge in impact and memories. It’s amazing how walking, in and of itself, for diseases that rob someone’s personhood, creates memories and caring support that will live on forever.
So, it’s for the moments that can happen whether on a walk or in the quiet space when an unexpected smile speaks volumes of what we continue to have. Those moments, so easily missed in the frantic and exhausting world of caregiving or having these diseases, can shine through for everyone. Helping others in being present to touch a moment is another reason I walk.
In loving memory of Isabel Pickett and all that must walk this journey,
Todd Matlovsky
NEXT PAGE
