Monday, February 20, 2012

Glenn Campbell and Alzheimer's Disease -Music as a Gift for AD

Was watching Fox News the other night (because I watch Fox News, and I am not ashamed) anyway they had an AD special on and were talking about Glenn Campbell. He of course has AD and is still touring. It was wonderful to see. Music is fantastic, it permeates the temporal lobe and the memory long term and the personality. It soothes the soul. It seems to be preserved as a memory longer than almost any other entity or medium.
Leeza Gibbons was also interviewed along with Maria Schriver. Leeza is an incredible spokesperson, and presented wonderful metaphor about the primary caregiver being the first rsponder iin an emergency. I really wish she was more of a National Spokesperson for AD. She does not seem too political and very kind, (not sure if that precludes someone from a position like that, but she is a wonderful advocate. You could feel the emotion and pain in both her and Maria, just below the camera interview surface. I have always maintained that if it is 1 year or 100 years that the pain of AD in a loved one the heartbreak never really goes away, but you do go on.
Anyways I love Glenn Campbell, this is a wonderful action to tour and raise awareness that people with AD are just that- PEOPLE.
My son will be going to several nursing homes in the Duluth area and playing guitar and Piano for the residents. Again nothing better than music. He is 16 years old and I am not able to emphasize to him how lonely many residents are and how powerful music is and what a gift he has in music to be able to do this.
His grandmother my mother died from AD five years before he was born.

Talking about the book with the Lake Superior wind....... a calm day