We are Climbing for: Russ

We are climbing for Russ, my Aunt's grandfather.  She writes, "My grandfather Russ Russell was a wonderful story teller, and growing up in the depression, being the son of a milliner, a 3 year, 9 month, and 11 day stint in the army during WWII, attending Loyola University, meeting and falling in love with my grandmother, working as an apparel buyer, and decades of travel made for delightful stories to my ears. A few years after a couple major heart surgeries and retirement the "I just can't remember's" started coming a little more frequent, but they were thought to just be just 'senior moments'. Though Alzheimer's progressed slowly over 15 years, thinking back I can vividly remember the chapters of the disease passing by. 

The world around was changing and mixed up, when in fact the change was happening within him and at first I think he recognized that. The ebb and flow of lucidity that slowly became just a shell of human skin with an empty eyed, memoryless frightened man inside. Getting confused and lost while driving in the town he'd lived in for over 40 years. 
The paranoia that people were stealing, the confusion of what decade it was and who loved ones were that he saw daily. Then just the silent scared man with empty eyes that could not even remember how to talk or chew food.

It's heartbreaking that at the time where you should look back and see how much your life has grown, where you've come and gone, and to watch your family grow, that your own body has turned against you. Your mind has closed and locked the doors and you are left suffer alone in the prison of your own body. I've always wondered who the disease is worse for the person with it or the family who watches it. Your efforts to find a cure bring hope to all that are affected. And hopefully someday families won't have to feel this pain.

We will Climb to Remember Russ and add his name to the banner.  Thanks for the great memory!