Today I participated in the Memory Walk here in Overland Park to benefit Alzheimer's research. I knew about the walk and decided to participate because my work, a senior living community, was participating. As I got up and got going this morning, this guy came to mind.
My Papa (my mom's dad, and my granddad)
Papa suffered from Alzheimers for a lot of my childhood-10 years- before he passed while I was in college. It was such a strange phenomenon to see such an amazing man with such strong physical health slowly lose his capacity to remember. I'm so glad I got to know my Papa before his mind stopped functioning. He was a great grandfather, and an acting grandpa for my grandmother's in-home nursery children. He was a hard-working man, but also very loving, and was so proud of serving his country during WWII. Unfortunately, Alzheimer's gradually made it so that he wasn't himself any more. While we did get some fun moments (like pillow fights and riding in the golf cart at the beach), it seemed to rob us of Papa too early.
The walk/run itself was a little strange. Most people walked (which I didn't know beforehand), so for the first 1/3 mile or so, I too walked (behind a marching band...). Thankfully, the band stepped aside, and I was able to run the rest. It was a good run, but a little weird being by myself (since it was a last minute decision, I didn't have my running buddy). I'm a little disappointed that I didn't get to run the whole thing, too, because I think I would have had a good final time (good for me being under 33 minutes- I think I was closer to 32, but not sure). I'm grateful to God for continuing to enable me to do these races and for improving as I go. I'm also so grateful that I was able to help with something good today (even though I didn't raise the money, my work did), and I'm pretty sure Papa is smiling down on me today.
One of our last Christmases with Papa
2 comments:
Alzheimer's is a terrible disease! My great uncle has it right now. In college I had to watch a video about the disease and I went home crying to my parents telling them they couldn't forget me.
What a great cause! I'm sad I missed it. My greath grandpa had Alzheimer's and my friend's mom has it too. I am so happy that you ran in honor of your Grandpa even if you didn't get to run the entire race. You were still there girl!! XOXO
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