Courageous. Geri Taylor is staring into the abyss with
grace, dignity and resolution, not allowing an insidious disease to
define her. She is a person living with Alzheimer's, not an Alzheimer's
person.
The inevitability of what tomorrow will look like does not, for Ms. Taylor, demand that today be without meaning.
Like millions of others, I have watched as a loved one lost
contact with her surroundings. It can be extraordinarily painful as the
ravages of the illness become ever more evident. It is a frightening
and depressing journey for those of us who are mere bystanders, and I
can but imagine the horror for the one who feels his or her existence
slipping away.
I applaud Ms. Taylor for allowing the reader inside her
head, inside this world. And I thank the New York Times for opening up a
critically needed discussion on a terrifying topic.
We are a population living longer but far too often and for
far too long in a diminished state of being. We must attack Alzheimer's
as if it were a mortal enemy, every bit as dangerous as the person
holding a gun to our head. For in truth, it is.
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