Alzheimer's is a terrible disease, that may have affected some of you in some way or another. Maybe your friend's mom, dad, or grandparent has or had it. Maybe one of your direct family members have, or is suffering from it. I know that finding a cure, is a cause that is very dear to my heart. My wife's grandfather suffered from this disease. When we met, he was in the very beginning stages of it. He was still fully functional, but had a habit of repeating himself quite a bit. Through the next few years, I watched as he slowly started to lose his independence. It was really hard on my wife and her family. Heck, it was hard on me and I had not even known him for that long. He was a veteran of World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. According to my wife, their was no question as to who was the head of their family.
Over time, things were slowly taken away to protect him. He loved to do projects around his house and yard. It eventually became too dangerous for him to operate power tools, or climb on a ladder, so my wife's grandmother had these items distributed to the various members of the family. We ended up with his ladder and his hedge trimmers. Every year when I hang Christmas lights, on that ladder, I think about him. I also think about him, every time that I trim our hedges, with that hedge trimmer.
Eventually, it became to dangerous for him to drive. He had a mint champagne, Ford Crown Victoria, that he was so proud of. My wife's mom slipped the keys to us, one day, and asked us to take the car to our house, so that grandpa wouldn't see it. We put the car up for sale, and it sold really quickly. The money, of course, went to grandpa's care.
Eventually, grandpa started wondering off. My wife's grandmother was not physically strong enough to keep up with him, so the difficult decision was made to admit him to a nursing facility. This really opened my eyes to this horrible disease. He was in an Alzheimer's unit. All of the patients, in this wing, were suffering from this horrible disease. They were at various stages, and they all seemed to behave in different manners. Some patients would wander aimlessly up and down the halls, while others were confined to wheelchairs, as they no longer knew how to walk.
Grandpa slowly lost the ability to do anything for himself. He was unable to dress, bathe, or feed himself. He eventually got to the point, where he no longer knew who we were. That's probably the hardest thing that I've witnessed, about this disease. From my understanding, the brain is finally unable to tell the body how to breath, and that is usually how the victim dies. This is the way that grandpa's death was explained to us. It's a really conflicting emotion. On the one hand, you of course are sad about their passing, but on the other hand, your relieved that they are at peace and no longer suffering from this horrible disease. Alzheimer's takes away all of your dignity and independence.
This weekend, SDR will be joining in a worthy cause. The Lone Star Parrot Head Club invited us to participate in the Phamily Phestival For Alzheimer's. As you can see, Alzheimer's has affected my family, as it does so many others. Roy was contacted by Lone Star Parrot Head Club to see if we would be interested in participating. Roy asked me if I was interested in doing this, and it was a very easy decision for me.
The event will take place this Sunday, October 5th, from 2-6pm at Fresco's Mexicana. Fresco's is located at 2420 Justin Rd., Highland Village, TX 75077. This event is open to the public. Their will be four, 1 hour sets of music. John Mason will be kicking things off at 2pm, and then we will follow from 3-4pm. After us, Charles Spradling will be playing, and then after that, a special unnamed guest will be appearing. Even I do not know who it will be. Guess you'll have to stick around and find out who it is! All of the acts involved, will be doing acoustic sets. For this one, it will just be Roy and I, and not the full band.
In addition to the live music, their will also be a silent auction going on. All of the proceeds will be donated to help fight Alzheimer's disease. Among the items for auction are a wine rack with some good wines, Coke a Cola merchandise, Cowboy sunglasses and much, much more! So come and "Party With Purpose", as Lone Star Parrot Head Club likes to say! Their will be plenty of great food, drinks, live music, and who knows what else! Let's do our part to fight this awful disease!
Ok. that's about all I have for now. Thank you for reading and I'll talk to you soon!
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