“We continue to make a life together, living together in the full sense of the word; going about our life, hand in hand, with everyone lending a hand, as though nothing was wrong at all.” Charles D. Snelling, husband for 61 years of Adrienne Snelling, and author of Life Report in the NY Times about what it is like to care for a loved one with Alzheimer’s.

I know there are many, many people on Google+ whose lives have been irreversibly affected by a visitation from that most unwelcome guest, Alzheimer’s. The issues that a family faces when they are caring for a loved one with any form of dementia are complex and vast. It is emotionally, psychologically, financially and spiritually taxing beyond belief. Figuring out the right thing to do in any given family is extremely difficult, and it is an issue that requires our deepest reservoir of empathy and understanding.

This man, Charles Snelling, brought closure to his own family and to his life with his afflicted wife in the best way he knew how. The Snelling family said Mr. Snelling had acted “out of deep devotion and profound love.” There is an epidemic of Alzheimer’s in our country. The price families pay when faced with this horrid disease is impossible to measure.

My mother died of Alzhiemer’s in 2004, and her illness took a huge toll on our family, as it does on every family I have ever met who has to deal with it. I found Snelling’s personal account of caring for his wife very moving.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/31/us/love-that-endured-alzheimers-ends-in-2-deaths.html?_r=1&hp