Ann’s Angels, a contingency of family and friends of the late Ann Michael, were out in full force Saturday at Iola’s annual Walk To End Alzheimer’s.
The occasion was filled with emotion, admitted Bill Michael, of his wife’s passing last November.
“My birthday is in October, so the kids and grandkids will help me celebrate that,” he said.
Bill recalled the first signs of the onset of the disease about eight years ago, when his wife told him she was having trouble getting their checkbook numbers to balance.
“She’d always handled that,” he said. “That was our first indication something was wrong.”
The Alzheimer’s steadily progressed to the point Ann was placed in a nursing home.
“It was tough on the kids,” Bill said, particularly as her mental capacity slowly diminished.
Still, Bill was on hand each night to help feed her dinner.
“I’m certain she still remembered who I was, right up to the end,” he said, recounting one evening when his wife — by then unable to talk — gestured in his direction at various times of the day.
THE CRUELTY of Alzheimer’s — described as a progressive mental deterioration caused by degeneration of the brain — makes finding a cure foremost on Iolan Mary LaCrone’s mind. She helped organize Saturday’s walk on the courthouse square.
Unlike heart disease, breast cancer and other prominent diseases — many of which are on the decline — diagnoses of Alzheimer’s are on the rise, LaCrone said.
What’s worse is there is no known cure, nor do researchers know how to prevent Alzheimer’s.
“And it’s not just the victims who are affected,” she said. “Alzheimer’s takes a tremendous toll on victims’ families.”
