To help fund Karyn's care
Donation protected
Yesterday at work I hugged a broken and lonely man, a colleague and a friend who needs our help. I have known Farrell for over twelve years. We were both firefighters together. We have seen some tragedy in our time and have also shared some great times together too. Farrell is a family man and a hard worker who serves his community.
Farrell's wife Karyn was 52 years old when she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's in September 2010. Karyn is now 58 and does not qualify for a pension. The diagnosis stopped their family in its tracks. Prior to the diagnosis life was good, as a family they struggled financially, but they had finally bought their own home and things were looking up. Since the diagnosis things have gone from bad to worse and in April 2015, Farrell reluctantly placed Karyn in residential care. In order to support Karyn's care, Farrell can work four jobs at times averaging seventy hours per week. He has tried everything to stay above water including selling his car, his daughters car, spent all his savings and cancelled insurance policies. The financial situation is dire. Everyone, especially the girls are suffering. They need help. Every $100 contributed helps with one days care for Karyn. They are close to losing their family home. They have lost enough.
A story about Alzheimer's...
Is My Name Karyn?
When most people hear someone has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, they just think of them as losing their memory. It is so very, very much more than that. As a person with Alzheimer’s, you lose everything that made you who you were. You lose your personality and your sense of humor. You lose every skill, regardless of how talented you were. You no longer retain reasoning ability and your judgment becomes totally impaired. And maybe the most tragic of all, there is no more learning.
You lose contact with your friends, because you can no longer communicate with them, and they are at a loss to know how to talk to you.
To lose your memory is to lose the memory of your life. You lose your marriage, the birth of your three beautiful children or even the knowledge that you have children. You lose all the things and places that you ever loved and enjoyed. Everything you ever read and learned from books and study is gone.
There comes a time when you have to ask, “What is my name?”
You forget how to take care of your personal needs. You have to be led to the bathroom, to your bedroom and to the sink for a drink of water.
You can’t dress yourself. You have to have help to bathe, , to brush your teeth, to shampoo and brush your hair. You can no longer tie your shoes nor many, many other things we all take for granted every hour of our life.
As a victim of Alzheimer’s you eventually become an empty shell at the mercy of others to care for you.
Never again will I take it lightly when I hear someone has Alzheimer’s. Some might think “horror” is too strong of a word, but it describes it perfectly. It is the most heartbreaking thing a partner, a child, a friend will ever experience in their lifetime.
Alzheimer’s is like an animal after its prey. Nothing will stop it until it takes your last breath.
Farrell is his wife Karyn's partner and biggest advocate. They are both trapped in a world of Alzheimer’s with its heartache, its emptiness and loneliness, and worst of all, its hopelessness. Their two teenage daughters and adult son are also trapped with them.
Every morning he awakes to the same empty feeling and he asks, “Please God, show me the way to better care for her needs.” He never ceases to feel guilty because it’s so hard to be patient and kind every minute of the day.
Mother Teresa said, “Kindness is a language the blind can see and the deaf can hear.” He so wants to be kind. Even if Karyn doesn’t understand what he is saying, he wants her to hear the love and gentleness in his words. She deserves every good thing he and his daughters can give her. She has been everything a wife could ever ask for in their many years together.
There’s no happy way out and life goes on and on one long day at a time.
Alzheimer’s cannot take her soul.
Farrell's wife Karyn was 52 years old when she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's in September 2010. Karyn is now 58 and does not qualify for a pension. The diagnosis stopped their family in its tracks. Prior to the diagnosis life was good, as a family they struggled financially, but they had finally bought their own home and things were looking up. Since the diagnosis things have gone from bad to worse and in April 2015, Farrell reluctantly placed Karyn in residential care. In order to support Karyn's care, Farrell can work four jobs at times averaging seventy hours per week. He has tried everything to stay above water including selling his car, his daughters car, spent all his savings and cancelled insurance policies. The financial situation is dire. Everyone, especially the girls are suffering. They need help. Every $100 contributed helps with one days care for Karyn. They are close to losing their family home. They have lost enough.
A story about Alzheimer's...
Is My Name Karyn?
When most people hear someone has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, they just think of them as losing their memory. It is so very, very much more than that. As a person with Alzheimer’s, you lose everything that made you who you were. You lose your personality and your sense of humor. You lose every skill, regardless of how talented you were. You no longer retain reasoning ability and your judgment becomes totally impaired. And maybe the most tragic of all, there is no more learning.
You lose contact with your friends, because you can no longer communicate with them, and they are at a loss to know how to talk to you.
To lose your memory is to lose the memory of your life. You lose your marriage, the birth of your three beautiful children or even the knowledge that you have children. You lose all the things and places that you ever loved and enjoyed. Everything you ever read and learned from books and study is gone.
There comes a time when you have to ask, “What is my name?”
You forget how to take care of your personal needs. You have to be led to the bathroom, to your bedroom and to the sink for a drink of water.
You can’t dress yourself. You have to have help to bathe, , to brush your teeth, to shampoo and brush your hair. You can no longer tie your shoes nor many, many other things we all take for granted every hour of our life.
As a victim of Alzheimer’s you eventually become an empty shell at the mercy of others to care for you.
Never again will I take it lightly when I hear someone has Alzheimer’s. Some might think “horror” is too strong of a word, but it describes it perfectly. It is the most heartbreaking thing a partner, a child, a friend will ever experience in their lifetime.
Alzheimer’s is like an animal after its prey. Nothing will stop it until it takes your last breath.
Farrell is his wife Karyn's partner and biggest advocate. They are both trapped in a world of Alzheimer’s with its heartache, its emptiness and loneliness, and worst of all, its hopelessness. Their two teenage daughters and adult son are also trapped with them.
Every morning he awakes to the same empty feeling and he asks, “Please God, show me the way to better care for her needs.” He never ceases to feel guilty because it’s so hard to be patient and kind every minute of the day.
Mother Teresa said, “Kindness is a language the blind can see and the deaf can hear.” He so wants to be kind. Even if Karyn doesn’t understand what he is saying, he wants her to hear the love and gentleness in his words. She deserves every good thing he and his daughters can give her. She has been everything a wife could ever ask for in their many years together.
There’s no happy way out and life goes on and on one long day at a time.
Alzheimer’s cannot take her soul.
Organizer
Peter Sutton
Organizer
Roleystone WA
