Brown eyes, healthy appetites, a love for farming; these are all things that run through the genes of the VanAernam family. Another more sinister thing that is in our genes is Alzheimer’s disease.

In the late 1990’s, my Grandma Elaine started showing signs of the disease and was soon after diagnosed with the type of dementia that causes problems with memory, thinking and behavior.

It started slowly, a repeated question here, a forgotten name there, but by 2003, my vibrant, very involved and independent grandmother was merely a shell of the woman she once was. She slowly forgot who we were. The ironic thing is that she always knew she wasn’t home. We would visit her at the nursing home and she would ask every time if we could, “take her home.” On Mother’s Day 2009, Grandma got her wish and was taken home, succumbing to the disease.

As we dealt with her condition and learned more about the disease, we discovered that her father, Walter Jensen also suffered from Alzheimer’s, although in those days most patients with dementia were diagnosed with “hardening of the arteries” which was said to have caused his memory loss and behavior problems. It was just one of the discoveries our family would make in learning to live with the disease. The other discovery was that our familiarity with Alzheimer’s would continue to grow as my Uncle Roy, Elaine’s youngest son, was beginning to show signs of the disease. As we closed the chapter on Grandma’s experience and life, a much darker chapter for Roy was just starting.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise, as those who have a parent, especially a mother, with Alzheimer’s are more likely to develop the disease, however, Grandma was in her 70’s when she started showing mild signs of the disease. Uncle Roy was merely 59 years old when his rapid descent began and his daughters; Kelly, Sara and Carrie began to lose their father.

(For the complete story see the Friday, Nov. 30 edition of the Audubon County Advocate Journal.)