Saturday, May 13, 2006

Welcome to The Unforgettable Fund - one family's effort to shine light on a very dark disease.

Alzheimer's creeps into the minds of our loved ones and breaks the hearts of their families and friends. I was lucky. When my father was diagnosed, my six brothers and sisters helped to carry the tremendous weight of this disease. For eleven years, we traveled through some very tough terrain. Our father died on January 3, 2006 and in his memory, we created The Unforgettable Fund - www.theunforgettablefund.com - to support Alzheimer's research by remembering loved ones. We launch on Monday, May 15. This blog is a component of that effort.

To all of you who feel alone in the middle of this struggle, we're here to tell you that you're not. We can help by sharing what we know and what we still have to learn. This is the place we'll do it.


2 comments:

  1. The website looks great!!

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  2. Patty Doherty is a long-time, much-loved friend to me. Upon hearing of the loss of her father, I was compelled to inflict my humble attempt at a song of hope on her. She pursuaded me to share, and my fondest hope is that some beleaguered soul out there may find some minor solace in these words that are freely offered with the giddy shiver of Love. (The metaphorical link to memory as a kind of lifeline resonates all the more when contrasted against the unholy ravages of Alzheimer's). We all have only each other...
    -----------------------------------------

    We know nothing of the ways of life.
    It holds us helpless on our knees.
    We come here stupid as the dust,
    our bodies iron, bound to rust.
    Our purpose trails the breeze.

    There is no cure for the ache we find
    when our loved ones leave our world.
    The endless gulfs of time itself are
    as nothing on that empty shelf where
    our white flag lies unfurled.

    The other side of love is grief.
    We suspect so from the start,
    when we set our souls on the
    path of joy, travelling gladly
    through our toils, clasping
    kith and kin to heart.

    Each one of us defies the way
    we are destined to the stone.
    Not for ourselves but our
    traveling mates, who pass
    before us through those gates,
    we long, yet are not alone.

    For the world will remind us
    with the turn of every day.
    A scent. A sound. A touch.
    A thought. A thousand things
    that were forgot, will stir the
    memories love has wrought.
    Will keep us on our way.

    -Giddy Shivers

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