APTOS -- The Rev. Leslie Heyboer said she felt touched by the stories she heard Saturday at the Santa Cruz Walk to End Alzheimer's while volunteering at a booth dedicated to the memories of loved ones lost to the nation's sixth leading cause of death.
A brother and a sister came to pay respects to their 101-year-old grandmother who died of complications of Alzheimer's, she said.
"They drove to Texas to meet her, but she didn't remember them," said Heyboer, a grief support counselor. "They started singing Methodist hymns. And then the grandmother started singing with them."
The musical connection shone light on a difficult situation, she said.
Alzheimer's disease causes problems with cognitive abilities such as memory, thinking and behavior, leaving the diagnosed increasingly dependent. While it is not a normal part of aging, 5 million people in the U.S. suffer from it, but the Alzheimer's Association estimates 16 million will have it by 2050.
To support research and the more than 3,700 people in Santa Cruz County with Alzheimer's disease, 1,000 people walked three miles at Seascape in Aptos, raising more than $200,000 for research and family services support, said event coordinator Anissa Novak.
Local community members and groups teamed up with the Alzheimer's Association such as Hospice of Santa Cruz County, which helped coordinate the remembrance booth. The event's walkers placed photographs, wrote messages, lit candles and purchased tribute flags in honor of people who died of complications of Alzheimer's.
Eight members of Sophie Blair's family walked the event. Blair died this past New Year's Eve at age 84. She had Alzheimer's for 15 years. Blair's family wore T-shirts featuring her name and picture and left an extra one at the booth.
"For the last two years of her life, she didn't talk to anyone. She just sat in her wheelchair or laid in her bed," daughter Rita Texeira said. "She went from taking care of everyone to not being able to take care of herself. It's terrible to be unable to help someone who did so much for everyone."
Blair was survived by five children, 21 grandchildren, 42 great-grandchildren and 12 great-great-grandchildren.
Alzheimer's plays a big role for many families. Bonnie Bollwinkel, who works for the Alzheimer's Association, lost her grandmother, father, uncle and two aunts. While she doesn't have Alzheimer's, she enrolled in two clinical trials and encouraged the event's participants to do the same. She and others signed up 25 people for trials, surpassing their goal of 20.
The disease has no cure and erodes independence, and many family members become caregivers. Santa Cruz resident Susan Harvel spoke at the event about her early-onset Alzheimer's diagnosis at the age of 53 and how it takes a tribe to care for her. According to the Alzheimer's Association, 15.4 million caregivers provided more than 17.5 billion hours of care valued at $216 billion in 2012.
More than one-third of Alzheimer's and dementia caregivers report symptoms of depression, and more than 60 percent of caregivers rate the emotional stress of caregiving as high or very high, according to the association. The cost of caring for people with Alzheimer's and other dementia will rise from about $200 billion this year to $1.2 trillion annually by 2050.
Despite how difficult Alzheimer's affects friends and family members, the remembrance booth celebrated life.
"I love the family history, the generational stuff they share with me," Heyboer said. "There's a place in my heart where I put stories like these."
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