In Memory of Mildred

I'm sure you thought the day I contacted you all to ask for money would be the day I had finally been forced to pay for protection against some angry husband or to pay off gambling debts. But alas, I'm coming to you with a serious plea for monetary support. On the 24th of this month, I will be walking in the 2009 Memory Walk sponsored by the Oklahoma Alzheimer's Association. This AMAZING organization and effort was brought to my attention by my dear friend Keili Hicks McEwen who works for the association. This particular charity is of such great interest to me because as many of you know, my dearly departed grandmother--the great Mildred Warren--died three years ago (this October the 15th) of this terrible illness. She was a woman of tremendous dignity, intelligence, integrity, and character who was robbed of the quality of her final remaining years by the debilitating effects of this disease. I wrote about her and my experience attending her funeral extensively in a post at that time in 2006.

A few years back, I think I told the story of what I consider our "final moment" together when she had one last shred of memory where I was concerned. Visiting her at her retirement community in Texas, she looked at me one last time the way she had when I was a child and had spent every summer with her and my late grandfather in Beebe, Arkansas. She took my hand, looked down at our joined hands, then looked back at me and said, "This is us."

Even writing this now, I find it hard not be overcome by emotion. My grandmother was an educated woman with a Master's degree in an era of our history when married women from the South "didn't need to bother with such things". She established one of the first special education programs in the state of Arkansas for young children and never failed to give her time to the youth of her hometown. She was an accomplished piano player whose love of music has been passed on to her entire family. Any of you who know me or my brother can attest to this. She loved God and her family unconditionally and was as tough as any person I've ever known. She always carried herself with dignity and pride and to see a disease take so much of that from her--to rob her of the comfort of her memories of family and friends and a lifetime of education and accomplishment was the most unfair of fates. In particular, my mother--the other strongest person I know--dealt with my grandmother's final years as closely as anyone could. The pain it caused her to watch her mother pass this way was nearly unbearable and I never want to see that sort of pain in my mother's eyes again.

In that light, I'd like you to consider either making a donation to my fundraising effort for the Memory Walk which you can do by clicking here or by visiting the Oklahoma/Arkansas chapter of the Alzheimer's Association at www.alz.org/alzokar. Anything that we can do to spare other individuals and their families of this pain in the future is a worthy cause in my book. Thanks for your time and consideration. Hope I didn't get too heavy for you today. I love you guys real hard.