Usually, when you hear of Alzheimer’s you imagine an older person, maybe a grandparent who has had a wonderful & long life. It’s considered an “old person disease”, but what happens when a person younger than 65 is diagnosed?
It was February of my freshman year of high school, I had just turned 15 years old two weeks prior. I don’t remember much of the details from the months that followed; maybe it was my brains way of protecting me or maybe I was in denial but that doesn’t change the fact that my mother was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s at the age of 56.
Alzheimer’s is a horrible disease, it’s ‘an irreversible, progressive brain disorder that slowly destroys memory and thinking skills and, eventually, the ability to carry out the simplest tasks’. Early onset Alzheimer’s occurs when an individual younger than 65 is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. The disease affects around 5 million people within the US. Unfortunately, my mother is one of those 5 million people.
It’s not something I talk about often, not with my boyfriend, best friends, or even my own family. But with finals approaching and myself being overworked & stressed out, I need to talk. Today I am 21 years old, it’s been 6 years since my mother’s diagnosis and she has no clue who I am.
As you can imagine, having a mother with Alzheimer’s is incredibly difficult to talk about, let alone deal with. The past 6 years have been the most difficult and challenging years of my life. I don’t have my mother to go shopping with, talk boys with, or even argue with. I’ve slowly watched my mother’s memories fade away and man, has it been heartbreaking.
After my mother’s diagnosis, my father retired to become her full time caretaker. You can always catch him loving my mother unconditionally and doing his absolute best to ensure she’s happy. His love for her is better than any Nicholas Spark movie and I’d be lucky to marry a man half as astonishing as my father.
My mother doesn’t recognize who I am anymore. She doesn’t know she’s married, has three beautiful daughters, or who she is really. Alzheimer’s is a disease I wish upon no one nor their loved ones. Alzheimer’s is an irreversible disease and there is no cure.
Though I have my momma with me physically, I’ve been missing her a lot lately. I miss early Sunday morning church, I miss lunch dates and shopping sprees, I even miss cleaning my room with her. She won’t remember when I graduate college, get married, or become a mother myself.
Thanks for letting me vent for a little Her Campus, study hard & have a kick ass last few weeks of school. Ace those finals & have a fun summer. And please hold your loved ones near, always tell them you love them, and never take them for granted. If you know someone who is battling Alzheimer’s and need to talk, I’m here for you. You can reach me through my Instagram, @beccasanchez