Thank you for your support of the Walk to End Azlherimer's

From left to right: Steve Clements; Don Moradian, my brother-in-law; Kathleen Williams, my sister; Gene Wisdom; Edmond Mood in the arms of Kathleen, Rod Williams, (me); Jonathan Moody, Becca's husband; and Becca Moody, my niece and mother of Edmond.

I appreciate my family and friends who joined me in the Walk Saturday morning and I appreciate all who contributed. The "Rod and Louella Team" raised $2335. Donations go to provide research to treat and prevent Alzheimer's and to find a cure and to provide programs and support to those affected by the disease. The Walk is the biggest fundraiser of the year for the Alzheimer's Association and takes place in hundreds of cities across America.

Saturday morning was damp and cool but the rain held off until after the event. It is hard to estimate

I enjoyed carrying Edmond on the Walk. He
 is 10 months old and such a sweet child. 

the size of a crowd like this but there must have been a couple thousand. The walk was from the Courthouse Square park up Deadrick Street to Legislative Plaza and back. If you intended to donate and it just skipped you mind, you can still donate at this link.

Unfortunately Louella is the advanced stage of her illness and is still in Good Samaritan recovering from a severely broken ankle. When I joined the Walk effort, I was hoping Louella would be out of rehab and be walking with me, but it didn't happen. I appreciate those who contributed and walked with me, but I want all who pray for me and Louella and who have expressed your concern and given me words of encouragement and asked about Louella to know how much your support means to me. Rod

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Nashville ranks in top 5 as most generous city. Memphis, 2nd most generoous.

I take great pride in Nashville and in Tennessee and am always pleased to see this city or state rank high in a list that shows just what a great city or state it is in which we live.   In a list published by the The Chronicles of Philanthropy, Nashville ranked as the 5th most generous city in America out of the 50 largest cities.  Memphis ranked even higher, coming in as the 2nd most generous city and one of only two cities where the cumulative giving of the residents exceeds 5% of the income. To see the complete list and more details about each city follow this link.

Here is the list of the most generous cities in America. I find it interesting that all but one are Southern cities and the one that is not is the home of the Mormon Church.  Other studies have found that religious people give more than non-religious people and conservatives give more than liberals. I suspect that the culture of these cities influences their generosity.

Rank	Metro area	Giving rate, 2012	Change in giving since 2006
1	Salt Lake City	5.4%	+2.7%
2	Memphis	5.1%	+6.7%
3	Birmingham, Ala.	4.8%	+1.7%
4	Atlanta	4.0%	+6.5%
5	Nashville	3.9%	+4.8%
6	Jacksonville, Fla.	3.8%	+8.7%

It is also interesting to see where the least generous people live.  They live in bastions of liberalism. I think few would dispute that San Francisco is one of the most liberal cities in America and yet they are the sixth most stingy cities in America.  Also, there is not much relationship between how wealthy a city is and how much they give. Boston is the sixth wealthiest city in America and fourth least generous city in America of the 50 largest cities. Here is where the least generous people live:

45	San Francisco	2.4%	-5.2%
46	Buffalo-Niagara Falls, N.Y.	2.3%	-10.6%
47	Boston	2.3%	-3.8%
48	San Jose, Calif.	2.2%	-7.8%
49	Providence, R.I.	1.9%	-8.3%
50	Hartford, Conn.	1.9%	-8.9%

In my own case, I support some charities, but maybe not as much as I should. I do however give a considerable amount to political causes. I think that preserving our freedoms, the form of government that made America great, preserving the free enterprise system, and the culture is as important as feeding the homeless or supporting the arts.

Due to my own experience of having the love of my life suffer from Alzheimer's and enduring watching her slip away day by day, one cause I support is the Alzheimer's Foundation.  This coming Saturday I will be walking in the Walk to End Alzheimer's. If you would join me in contributing to this battle to end Alzheimer's I would greatly appreciate it. To contribute at this secure site, follow this link and click "$ Donate."  A contribution of any amount would be greatly appreciated.

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Will you please join me in the battle to combat Alzheimer’s?

The Walk to End Alzheimer's is this Saturday. If you are in Nashville and can join me, please do. The letter below tells why I am walking to end Alzheimer's and how Alzheimer's has touched my life. For those who have prayed for me and Louella and offered words of encouragement, thank you. For those who have contributed to the cause, I appreciate it.  If you have not contributed and would like to do so, I would be greatly appreciative. If you can't afford much, any amount would be appreciated. You can contribute by following this link. I know the worse part of this journey is ahead and I know finding a cure is too late to help my sweet Louella, but finding a cure will help others escape this terrible disease. Please continue to lift us up in prayer. Thank you, Rod

My dear friends,

Will you please join me in the battle to combat Alzheimer’s?

My life has been touched by this terrible illness.  My wife has been diagnosed for almost ten years now but probably had it for a couple years before that and she is

Louella in her cast

now in the advanced stages of the disease.

On October 11th, I will be taking part in the Nashville Walk to End Alzheimer's. Louella is currently in rehab, but if she is out, I hope she can walk with me. Would you please sponsor us in this walk? A contribution of any amount will be appreciated. Can you contribute $5 or $10? If you will click on this link, it will take you to my donation page.  (Once on that page, just click on "$ Donate to my team" and then it takes you to another page where you can submit your credit card information. This is a secure site administered by the Alzheimer Association. After submitting your donation you will receive a confirmation message.

If you are more comfortable writing a check, make the check out to “Alzheimer’s Association” and mail it to me and I will turn it in. My address is Rod Williams, 758 Roycroft Pl. Nashville, TN. 37203.

If you are here in Nashville and can join me for the walk, I would be honored. We will be walking a two mile walk starting at the Public Square Park, which is the park in front of the Courthouse.  Registration is at 8:00 am, Ceremony at 9:00 am, and the Walk is at 9:30 am. They have coffee and pastry that morning or they have in the past and I assume they will.  To join the "Rod and Louella Team" in the walk to end Alzheimer click on this link and then click “join my team.”  If you fail to register for the walk and want to join us at the last minute, just show up and look for me.

Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging and just getting senile. Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain disorder that damages and eventually destroys brain cells, leading to loss of memory, thinking and other brain functions. Alzheimer's usually develops slowly and gradually gets worse as more brain cells wither and die. Ultimately, Alzheimer's is fatal, and currently, there is no cure. Unless a cure is found, you or someone you love may develop this disease. Currently, more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's and that number is expected to grow to as many as 16 million by 2050. It is the 6th leading cause of death. Our future is at risk unless we can find a way to change the course of this disease.

If you are a reader of this blog and live here in Nashville, some of you probably know Louella from

Louella and Sue, taken last year in New Orleans

my civic involvement and political activity. She has gone with me almost every place I have gone for about the last ten years up until the last year. She was usually happy and smiling and enjoyed being at events. Most of this time she still had good social skills despite her illness. Despite her illness we tried to live a normal life and for the most part, life was still good. Unfortunately that has changed. Now, much of the time Louella is unhappy and often agitated. This last year and a half has been rough, especially the last three months. Louella has lost most of her vocabulary skills and mumbles nonsensical syllables. She still knows me and she know her caregiver Sue, but I don't know that she knows other people.

In June, I put Louella in Parthenon Pavilion, a mental hospital.  The reason, I put her in there is that she was not sleeping.  Some nights she would sleep maybe two or three hours and sometimes maybe a couple hours but in 15 or 30 minute increments.  She had slept all night long only a couple night in the prior two weeks. Her not sleeping was taking a toll on me. Being on medication and exhausted from not sleeping, she would stumble and fall. I was afraid she would hurt herself so I put her in the hospital. Then things got worse.  She was in there a month and while there, supposed to be under one-on-one supervision, she fell and broke her ankle.  It was a bad break, broke in five places.  She then went to the hospital and had to have two operations.  While in the hospital she developed Pneumonia.  She spend two periods in the intensive care unit and I was afraid she was going to die.

After about a month in the hospital, she was moved to a rehab facility called Good Samaritan. She was free of pneumonia before leaving the hospital and Louella is stronger than she was. She had lost a lot of weight, but is now back up to almost her normal weight and she has a good appetite. Her ankle is healing and she goes to the doctor in a couple weeks and if all goes well the cast will be removed.

I have been so disappointed in the whole process of being involved in the health care system. At all

April 2007 at the Inauguration Ball for Bill Haslam

three institutions, I have felt that people would not know what they were doing. As an example, where she is now, she is supposed to have no weight on her broken leg, yet a tech would come in and try to get her to stand to get out of the wheel chair to the bed.  I would tell him she is to have no weight on that leg and he would say he didn't know and he would then get help moving her, but the next day a different tech would not know. While there have been some people who have been very sweet to Louella, often patients are treated like something to be processed, not like you would want the person treated if she was your mother. Louella went to the hospital because she could not sleep and ended up with a broken leg and pneumonia. Avoid going to the hospital if you can.

There is a risk that Louella may not be able to walk when the cast comes off. Some people with Alzheimer forget how to walk and cannot relearn after something like this. Also, her sleeping is still not regulated.  I still plan to bring her home, but am not sure how I will manage.  We still have Sue working for us.  She has been with us for almost four years now.  She is so sweet to Louella and really loves her.  I don't know what I would do without Sue.

It is sad to watch Louella fade away and difficult to face the inevitable. Louella and I have had a

We were married in a ceremony at our home Dec. 4th, 2005

wonderful portion of our life together.  I just wish I would have met her much earlier than I did and shared more of my life with her.  (See How Ayn Rand changed my life.) We really were soul mates. She shared my passion for political ideas and current events. We had read the same books and knew a lot of the same stuff. We could talk for hours. She was my best friend and we grew as a couple.  We learned about wine together.  We cooked together and became pretty good at cooking Thai and Asian foods, finding new receipts and searching for the best authentic ingredients. We shared an appreciation together of art and architecture and history and learned more together. And, we travelled. Every year for about ten years before she got sick we took a great vacation together. We would spend months studying, reading history of the country we were to visit and we traveled cheap with nothing but one rolling suitcases each and two good guide books. We really experienced the countries we visited. We went to Italy, Spain, Turkey, Greece, the Czech Republic, Hungary and more. Our trips were adventures and romantic. (See Drinking wine in Turkey.)

It is too late to find a cure for Alzheimer’s that will help Louella, but a cure will save others from this terrible disease. Please join me in the fight against Alzheimer’s by sponsoring my walk. Just follow this link and follow the instructions. Please keep us in your prayers and thank you.
 Rod Williams

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Don’t allow the government to stand in the way of doctors providing an early and accurate diagnosis.

From The Alzheimer’s  Association:

Don’t allow the government to stand in the way of doctors providing an early and accurate diagnosis. Half of the more than 5 million Americans with Alzheimer’s have never received a formal diagnosis. We know that an early and accurate diagnosis leads to better outcomes and higher quality of life for people with Alzheimer’s and their families. Yet the federal government is moving to put up a barrier to those benefits. Urge policy makers to improve care and provide an accurate diagnosis.

On July 3rd, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) -- the agency that controls many aspects of the Medicare services you receive -- issued a disappointing draft decision on coverage for a particular type of diagnostic test called brain amyloid imaging (read more). CMS stated they believe there is insufficient evidence that use of this test improves health outcomes for Medicare beneficiaries with dementia or neurodegenerative disease in specific populations.

However, the Alzheimer’s Association convened the Amyloid Imaging Taskforce, a group of leading experts in the field, who recommended that for certain situations amyloid imaging should be covered by Medicare immediately to improve the quality of care. One of those situations is when a dementia expert is unsure whether a decline in memory is due to Alzheimer’s or some other -- perhaps preventable -- cause.

Thankfully the decision is not yet final. Make your voice heard if you have had firsthand experience with dementia diagnosis and care, for yourself or a loved one. If you and your family experienced challenges in obtaining a diagnosis, or if an accurate diagnosis has allowed you and your family to better plan and manage the disease, please share your experience. Those who have lived with Alzheimer’s or related dementias know an early and accurate diagnosis allows individuals with the disease and their caregivers to better manage medications and other chronic conditions, receive counseling, engage in financial and long-term care planning, and consider all medical and non-medical treatments and supports – including participation in appropriate clinical trials. These benefits improve the quality of life for those fighting Alzheimer’s and can lead to significant cost savings, both for individuals and our nation. We can’t afford to postpone for years important tools that are ready to help doctors provide better Alzheimer’s care today.

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WALK TO END ALZHEIMER'S, NASHVILLE, Please make your contributionnow

If you have intended to make a contribution to the Walk to End Alzheimer’s and have not done so, please do it now. The campaign in rapidly coming to an end.

Please click on  this link and it will take you to a secure page were you can make your contribution. It is quick and easy.

The Walk is Saturday. Registration at 8AM; walk starts at 9AM. Please join Louella and I as we walk. To read more how this disease has affected me and Louella, read here and here.

To each of you who have contributed, I really to appreciate it.   Rod

 WALK TO END ALZHEIMER'S, NASHVILLE

TODAY!

OCTOBER 13, 2012 | CENTENNIAL PARK

 

Walk Day will be filled with

fun and exciting festivities for all ages.

Bounce houses, balloons, and airbrush tattoos at our Kids Zone

Contests and photos for all of our pets at our Paws for a Cause

 MUST SEE vendors in our Health and Fitness Zone

 The return of our very special and colorful Promise Garden

EXCITING ENTERTAINMENT, FREE FOOD, LOTS OF FUN!

Announcements

 - Registration begins at 8:00 AM.

- Opening Ceremonies will begin at 8:30 AM.

-The Walk will begin at 9:00 AM.

-The Walk route is a little more than a mile in length.

-Walk is a rain or shine event.

Alzheimer's does not stop for the weather, so neither will we.

- Parking will be available at various places throughout Centennial Park

There will also be street parking and parking across the street at the Marriot.

 If you would like to drop off Walkers near the band shell area, there is a circle drive that will be available for drop off from 7:00am-8:30am.

If you have any questions at all, please give us a call at 1.800.272.3900.

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Please join me in the battle to combat Alzheimer’s. Please give.

Dear friends,

Louella and her cat Sabrina

The Walk to End Alzheimer's is Saturday October 13th.  For those of you who have already contributed to the Walk to End Alzheimer's campaign, I really do appreciate it. Thank you.

There is only a few days left until the end of the campaign. Would you please join me in the battle to combat Alzheimer’s by making a contribution?  A contribution of any size will be appreciated. $5 or $10 will help and I will be grateful.
 
If you will click on this link, it will take you to my donation page.  Once on that page, just put in the amount you want to contribute and then it takes you to another page where you can submit your credit card information. This is a secure site administered by the Alzheimer Association. After submitting your donation you will receive a confirmation message.
If you are more comfortable paying by check, make the check out to  Alzheimer’s Association and mail it to me and I will turn it in. My address is Rod Williams, 758 Roycroft Pl. Nashville, TN. 37203.

Alzheimer's is not a normal part of aging. Alzheimer's disease is a progressive brain disorder that damages and eventually destroys brain cells, leading to loss of memory, thinking and other brain functions. Alzheimer's usually develops slowly and gradually gets worse as more brain cells wither and die. Ultimately, Alzheimer's is fatal, and currently, there is no cure. Unless a cure is found, you or one you love may develop this disease. Currently, more than 5 million Americans have Alzheimer's and that number is expected to grow to as many as 16 million by 2050. Our future is at risk unless we can find a way to change the course of this disease.

Louella, her brother Ben and
sister Linda. Florida,
May 2012

This fight against Alzheimer's is very personal with me. As you know, my life has been touched by this disease. My wife and the love of my life suffers from it.  It is too late to find a cure to help Louella. I have to accept that, but we may find a cure to save many others.

Louella has been diagnosed with the illness for eight years, but probably had it at least two years prior, maybe more. These last eight years have not been terrible. We have tried to not let her illness define our life and have tried to have as normal a life as possible.  We still went on a couple nice European vacations after she was diagnosed and we went on two vacations to Florida to visit Louella’s sister.  We continued an active social life of civic involvement and spending time with family and leisure activity.  We still go to the art crawls and sometimes party on lower Broadway.

I have been blessed in that Louella is not one of the Alzheimer’s patients who is angry, disagreeable, disruptive, or wanting to fight.  Louella could not be sweeter.  She does not tend to “wander.” And Louella is happy as can be.  She is content picking “flowers” in the yard. Actually she picks bouquets of weeds or foliage, but she is particular about which ones she is picking. Picking flowers makes her really happy. She also is content playing with her bling. She will put on earrings and necklaces and attach earrings to her clothing. She can play in her jewelry for hours. She has a lot of things that interest her. And, we have a cat that Louella is just crazy about.

Louella, Sue Deuss, Rod, and Councilman Walter Hunt
 at MLK event, Jan. 2012

Actually Louella is a delight. She gets excited at seeing butterflies fluttering around our zinnias in the front yard. She takes great delight in watching children. She gets excited at birds and if she sees a “bunny,” which we have a lot of in our neighborhood, she gets real excited. She likes a lot of television, especially America’s Funnies Home videos. Louella still loves to dance and to go places. Louella could not be happier.

We have been blessed by having a great caregiver for Louella.  Sue Deuss really loves Louella and could not be more gentle and sweet to her. She takes Louella places and takes good care of her. Sue has become like part of our family.

Unfortunately, Louella’s children have totally abandoned her.  They never call and never see her. After discovering they were stealing her money and after a long, lengthy legal battle, Louella’s remaining funds were placed in a conservatorship last year.  We have heard nothing from either of her children since then. Luckily Louella is unaware.  She lives in the here and now and worries about nothing.

Unfortunately, in the last year Louella has had a major decline. She can no longer read at all. She could not read with understanding for a long time, but now she cannot read any words.  Also, she talks less.  She still can understand when you talk to her, but she makes conversation a lot less and cannot find the words to express herself when she does try to talk. The worst is that she has lost control of her bodily functions. This makes it more difficult to go places and makes daily life less pleasant, but it is just part of it. 

Despite this further decline, Louella is still graceful, feminine, delicate, and charming. She still loves to get dressed up nice. She still enjoys life. She has the same mannerisms and she is still engaged and aware of what is going on around her. She is still Louella.

On October 13 We will be walking a mile and a half in Centennial Park. If you are in Nashville, Please join me.  Sign-in is at 8:00 AM and the walk begins at 9AM. To join the Rod and Louella Team" in the walk to end Alzheimer click on this link and then click “join team.”  If you fail to register for the walk and want to join us at the last minute, just show up.

Over the years, your words of encouragement, prayers and concern have been greatly appreciated. The support I have had from family and friends means so much. "Rod and Louella Team.

God Bless you,

Rod

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