To me, Alzheimer’s is both terrifying and seemingly insurmountable. As a child, doctors assured me that I would never suffer in the way that my grandfather did. Healthy in body but not in mind, he endured for years and long past the time either of us recognized the other. Now, my mother is afflicted and to a layperson such as myself, we don’t seem to be any closer to effective treatments, let alone a cure. My mom is a loving person rendered fragile and afraid by the abuses of life on her body and mind, and yet nothing compares to the living hell that is Alzheimer’s. As a witness to what happened to her own father she is understandably terrified when she recognizes the same precipitous declines in her own cognitive abilities. My mother is afraid and there is nothing I or anyone else can do to alleviate that fear.

I am a Producer/Segment Director for the long-running quiz show, JEOPARDY! and I travel the globe recording “video clues” from such far-flung locations as Ankor Wat, Machu Picchu and Petra. I’m a voracious reader and have even been known to put pen to paper, from time to time.

I want the men and women working day in and day out on treatments and cures to know that I and so many like me, applaud their efforts. I only wish that they were more successful. We must be more aggressive. We must think outside of the box.