“Dear Stan - 

Thank you for the beautiful card. Sorry this is all I had –  

Think of you often and what you went though. 

I know how hard it is to “Let Go and Let God” – 

I have had M---- in clinical trials the last 2 winters but as you know it does no good. 

M---- is at least 5 years into this terrible disease and unless you have lived it you don’t know how terrible it is.  

I don’t know if we will go back to Arizona. 

I keep looking for a miracle in these clinical trials but I guess I know there is none. 

M---- is still happy but doesn’t even know the children and grandchildren’s names.  

If you’re ever in the area please stop. 

V---"    (June 2009)

"Dear Stan:

Thank you for your card - No, things are no longer good here -

We did clinical Trials on M--- for 3 years in Arizona but as you know, they did nothing.

The last was through Pfizer Pharma and they canceled it 3 weeks ago as a failure...

We sold our place in Arizona - or you might say gave it away...

As you know we would give anything to turn the Clock back.

M--- will be in a home soon but its hell to give up.

In November we will be married 60 years.

If you are ever in the area, Stop.

V---"     (June 2010)

(June 14th 2009 - The above is a candid and poignant letter – card received from my cousin who has a wife in mid stages of Alzheimer’s. Unfortunately the worst is yet to come. (she will gradually lose the ability to walk, talk, eat or use the bathroom without help, there may be difficulty swallowing and the list goes on until life becomes little more than a mere existence)  There are no medical or miracle cures for Alzheimer's. No one who has ever traveled into the shadows of Alzheimer's has ever returned. The average time from diagnosis to death is 8 years. (President Reagan survived for 10 years, Charlton Heston for 5.3 years.) Death is always the result. Over the years I have kept my cousin updated on June through my writings and my published tributes on June. He remembered the almost 11 year's journey for June as she gradually disappeared into the shadows of Alzheimer's. We both have birthdays on the same day in June so we always exchange birthday cards.) 

(June 14th, 2010 - The following year's sad additional note is also reproduced below the 2009 note.)