Up Close and Personal

Every week, we'll feature the personal story of someone who has a firsthand experience with Alzheimer's, or who simply wants to find a cure for this unforgiving disease. This is Maureen's story. My beautiful mother, who worked her whole life, was diagnosed with Alzheimer's at the age of 68. She had just buried my Dad a year prior and her sister in 2003. She watched both of them suffer and was there at their side every day in the hospital praying and caring for them. I don't know if loosing both of them a year apart was too much for

Meryl and Me, Part 2

Over our dining room table we worked out a plan for a fundraiser for Alzheimer's. Ellen Proxmire and others were opting for a small, manageable event. Tony Sudler, the head of the Virginia/Maryland Chapter of the Alzheimer's Association (a truly wonderful chapter) was willing to take either/anything. My husband George was almost 100% now, after having suffered a massive heart attack the year before (but that•s another saga for another time). Still, he was unsure if he should take on a big event. George tentatively voted for small; Meryl and I exchanged sly glances and our hands shot up for