Abilene Couple Discuss Life with Alzheimer's Disease, Spread Awareness
By: Kristin Anderson
Updated: September 5, 2012
Jo Ann and Richard Jones are high school sweethearts and the two have been inseparable, until Richard had an incident.
"He wandered," Jo Ann explained. "He got out at 2:30 in the morning and wandered up on the highway."
At 74 years old, Richard was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. A disease that Jo Ann's mother also had.
"This is the man I've been married to over 50 years. So, he's not there. And I'm accustomed to his being there you know, beside me when we go to sleep at night and watching television," she said. "It's not the same as when my mother had it. It's different when it's your soul mate."
She said there are times when it is difficult.
"It was just awful. You just think, 'He looks the same, but he doesn't act the same.' That's kind of difficult to understand," said Jo Ann.
But that being with Richard has taught her patience.
"Sometimes I get upset. I do, I'm human," Jo Ann said. "And you can't do that, because they are unable to function any better than that. I can know how to react to the disease itself because that's what it is."
"He wandered," Jo Ann explained. "He got out at 2:30 in the morning and wandered up on the highway."
At 74 years old, Richard was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. A disease that Jo Ann's mother also had.
"This is the man I've been married to over 50 years. So, he's not there. And I'm accustomed to his being there you know, beside me when we go to sleep at night and watching television," she said. "It's not the same as when my mother had it. It's different when it's your soul mate."
She said there are times when it is difficult.
"It was just awful. You just think, 'He looks the same, but he doesn't act the same.' That's kind of difficult to understand," said Jo Ann.
But that being with Richard has taught her patience.
"Sometimes I get upset. I do, I'm human," Jo Ann said. "And you can't do that, because they are unable to function any better than that. I can know how to react to the disease itself because that's what it is."
