Late former president Ronald Reagan was arguably the most famous man in the world to be diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Yet, his daughter, Patti Davis, said that in the 10 years that she cared for her ill father, no one ever asked how she was doing.
"We were the poster family for Alzheimer's, but no one wanted to talk about it," Davis said.
As a result, she has spent the past six years trying to forge a new path for family members and caregivers of those with Alzheimer's through her local support group, Beyond Alzheimer's.
The group was meeting at St. John's Health Center in Santa Monica up until the end of May 2017. But now, she plans to bring this space of grieving and healing beyond Los Angeles through licensing the group to be used in hospitals across the country.
"People bring their loved ones to a doctor, they get a diagnosis ... and they are sent out with no one to talk for counsel, for support," Davis said. "Nowhere to go where they can talk about the very messy emotions that they're feeling: the anger, the annoyance, the terror."
With no known cure, the outcome of Alzheimer's is inevitable, Davis said. But through her support group, she strives to help people find moments with their loved ones that help them to learn and grow amid the sorrow.
She experienced a moment like this with her father, at the time of his death.
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"It was a beautiful experience," Davis said. "He opened his eyes and they were blue again, and they hadn't been for a year, and he looked at my mother and he was there. He was present. It was incredible."
Fifteen months ago, Davis lost her mother, Nancy Reagan to heart disease. But she said that it's the lessons she learned during her father's illness that have kept her focused on those that Alzheimer's leaves behind.
Now, with a national mission, she hopes to make her father proud.
