Walk to End Alzheimer’s 2017

It was my 20th year walking in memory of my mother this Sept. 23, just two days before my 62nd birthday.   For the second year in a row I was a Grand Champion, raising over $1000.   I led Team Awesome, and together we raised $1697.  My team came in 4th, and I also came in 4th from the top as an individual.   I couldn’t keep away the tears during the Memory Garden ceremony.  Twenty-one years later, my sister who is a late-stage Parkinson’s patient, also is getting dementia.   I will walk for her next year too, whether or not she is alive, because the Walk to End Alzheimer’s is not only for Alzheimer’s but other dementias as well.   I will walk as long as I can walk, and even if I cannot, my team members will probably push me in a wheelchair.  I will keep on, hoping that one day there will be a white flower as a part of the Memory Garden ceremony.   Now there are purple, yellow, orange and blue for the following:

Blue — I have Alzheimer’s

Yellow — I am supporting or caring for someone with Alzheimer’s

Purple — I have lost someone to Alzheimer’s

Orange — I support the cause and a vision of a world without Alzheimer’s