I was not ready to lose a parent, let alone to such a horrible disease. I was 30 when my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. My siblings were even younger. The doctors expected he would live for less than five years. He made it three. My first son was born six months before my dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It was the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, and life was a blur. When my son was born, dad was showing some signs of cognitive decline- he had fallen asleep at the wheel and gotten [...]

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My mom, Renée, was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s when she was 65. She said having the diagnosis finally made everything make sense. If you met her socially you might not even have a clue that she has the disease but behind the scenes and to a trained eye the evidence is there - the impulsive poor decision making, not being able to tend to her finances, a hard time starting tasks or remembering the sequence, not being able to find the right word or remember the meaning of once known word [...]

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My beautiful sister, Susan Patricof, was diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer’s at the age of 65. A generous and accomplished philanthropist and advocate for women and children throughout the world, she tirelessly improved the lives and championed the rights of so many. Susan lived with this illness for 12 years. During those years, I moved from home in Florida back to New York City to be with her and to help my family with her care. I recently learned that I was one of 11 million Americans to [...]

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Gary Troy’s Caregiver Champion story: My mother, Angela Mary Troy, was born and raised in the heart of Dublin city near the four courts. She was a seamstress and dressmaker by trade and worked in Arnott's, the famous department store in town. She started performing on stage very young, and it wasn't long before she was the lead in most of the musicals at the famous Matthew Hall in Dublin. It was there that my father met her when he was at a show one evening. In fact, he never had the courage t [...]

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During the summer of 2021, my dad suffered a series of silent strokes that left him with vascular dementia. Prior to that, I used to joke that we were a “decentralized” family; the three of us (my mom, dad, and I) each happily lived alone and conducted our lives independently of one another despite being in the same city. My parents have been divorced for about 25 years, and for the majority of that time, there was radio silence between the two of them. Some time after the strokes, I received an [...]

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