It’s a balmy Wednesday night, as we stand outside the Anderson School of Management. I shiver and zip up my jacket as we wait in line to get inside. The groups of boys in front of us start doing their best Seth Rogen interpretations.
“Couscous, the food’s that so nice they gotta name it twice.”
“Is that a fart?…I can taste it…on the tongue”
“They hate us, cause they aint us!”
And of course they all imitate his signature throaty chuckle.
“Heh heh heh ”
But if there’s one thing comedian and actor Seth Rogen won’t joke about, it’s Alzheimer’s, as the incredibly deteriorating disease has affected his family.
Maria Shriver, former first lady of California and noted journalist, hosted the event for Architects of Change, a group sponsored by Shriver that invites various speakers to college campuses to inspire a younger generation to become more active in pressing causes.
One of the pressing issues? Alzheimer’s, a disease Rogen knows too well. His mother-in-law, Adele, slowly succumbed to the illness, prompting Rogen to look for answers. He tells us about his trip to D.C. to meet senators.
“What’s funny is several of them showed up in a small room beforehand and took pictures with me. And then they didn’t bother coming to (my hearing), and they tweeted out the pictures and stuff and so I tweeted at them ‘You didn’t come to the thing!’ and then I tweeted photos of all the empty chairs, like ‘Where is everybody?’ I flew to D.C., what happened?”
While Seth delivered the anecdote in a comedic manner, complete with throaty chuckle, the audience members were infuriated at the injustice. Rogen and his wife Laura went on to talk about Hilarity for Charity, their foundation created to help raise money and awareness for Alzheimer’s.
My grandmother, like Rogen’s mother-in-law, has early on-set dementia.
Some days are better than others, but most days she’s lost in the fog of her own mind, asking me why I’m not living at home, how come our house is smaller and who’s that young boy running around the house all day. Those questions are heartbreaking but easy enough to answer; I live in a dorm at my college far away, we moved here years ago and that’s her youngest grandchild.
The most heartbreaking question comes when, for a fleeting moment, the fog lifts and she asks if there’s a cure, some medicine that will make the memories of today stay in her head.
Most days I don’t know what to say.
I’m glad people like Seth and his wife Lauren exist. It’s incredibly difficult to motivate people to help a cause if it does not directly affect them. “For our college program, the reward is to meet Seth,” Lauren said.
“With our event, we’ve literally had to make it as desirable an event as humanly possible, to get literally the best comedians and musicians on the planet. And that’s the only way we can make people listen to us talk about Alzheimer’s for 45 seconds,” Seth said. “It’s really hard“.
Hopefully Rogen’s humor and drive will spur many college students to action. Whether it be research, volunteering or donating.
What will you do?
Photography provided by mariashriver.com