My mother had warned me not to expect much.
My grandfather had finally slipped away to a place where no one could jump in the car with him and travel along.
He was no stranger to traveling along the back roads of the deep South. Although the establishment of the Interstate highway scissored hours off his regular jaunts, he bypassed the great grey ribbon to drive the tried and true routes of his youth. During summer vacations, we rode right along with him, stopping at the greasiest of spoons and marveling at sites zipped past unseen at 65 miles per hour.
The eventual loss of his driver license had helped hasten his departure from us. After slamming his fist into the car speedometer while driving through moving traffic and nearly causing an accident, the State of Alabama permanently took him off the roads he so loved, stripping away his identity right along with his independence.
We lost him soon after to the travels in his mind.
Having flown from Florida to attend my grandfather’s 94th birthday, I stood last in a line of relatives greeting our absent patriarch, steeling myself against the loss suffered by those Alzheimer’s leaves behind.
My grandfather sat before me in his new set of wheels, his shock of silver white hair a brilliant offset against the green of his L.L. Bean bathrobe. As his pale blue eyes looked up into the vivid blues of my own, a flit of unexpected recognition sparked his features alive. He smiled and folded me close in his embrace.
The traveling man had come home to his first-born granddaughter, if only for the briefest of seconds.
The Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk® is the nation's largest event to raise awareness and funds for Alzheimer care, support and research. Volunteers of all ages are called upon to champion the fight against Alzheimer's. Walks are scheduled in more than 600 communities. A typical Memory Walk is a 2-3 mile walk held on a weekend morning in the fall.
By teaming up with the Alzheimer's Association, you can walk with a purpose – and move us closer to a world without Alzheimer's.
Together, we can MOVE a nation.
Together, we can keep memory alive.
