Another Alzheimer's casualty...

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Profile Eric Ogletree

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Message 69452 - Posted: 21 Jan 2011, 6:24:47 UTC

Sadly, another person died with Alzheimers somewhat recently. My grandfather passed away at the age of 84. In honour of his memory, there's one story that I would like to share with everybody:

During World War 2, he served in the Canadian Navy on the corvette HMCS Hawksberry. When my brother and I were young and, well, stupid, we ran up to him and asked him about war because we thought that "war was cool" at the time. The first thing he told the both of us was how he watched a merchant ship with four thousand men was torpedoed by a German U-boat. The sad thing was was that he couldn't do a thing to save any one of them. A bit of a morbid thing he mentioned, was that the last decision that the "survivors" made was how they were going to die: death by drowning, or death by burning, as the oil and desiel was burning on the surface of the water.

I know that this is a bit late for Rememberance Day (or whatever holiday everybody else uses to honour their military in the world), but hopefully this story reinforces the idea that we should remember those who gave their lives for our rights and freedoms, and that war, any war, really sucks ass.

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Message 69456 - Posted: 21 Jan 2011, 11:33:06 UTC - in response to Message 69452.  

Sadly, another person died with Alzheimers somewhat recently. My grandfather passed away at the age of 84. In honour of his memory, there's one story that I would like to share with everybody:

During World War 2, he served in the Canadian Navy on the corvette HMCS Hawksberry. When my brother and I were young and, well, stupid, we ran up to him and asked him about war because we thought that "war was cool" at the time. The first thing he told the both of us was how he watched a merchant ship with four thousand men was torpedoed by a German U-boat. The sad thing was was that he couldn't do a thing to save any one of them. A bit of a morbid thing he mentioned, was that the last decision that the "survivors" made was how they were going to die: death by drowning, or death by burning, as the oil and desiel was burning on the surface of the water.

I know that this is a bit late for Rememberance Day (or whatever holiday everybody else uses to honour their military in the world), but hopefully this story reinforces the idea that we should remember those who gave their lives for our rights and freedoms, and that war, any war, really sucks ass.


Please thank your grandfather for the rest of us for doing what he did so those of us can do what we do! Without people like your grandfather our lives would be much different!!
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Message 69457 - Posted: 21 Jan 2011, 12:17:27 UTC - in response to Message 69452.  

Sadly, another person died with Alzheimers somewhat recently. My grandfather passed away at the age of 84. In honour of his memory, there's one story that I would like to share with everybody:

During World War 2, he served in the Canadian Navy on the corvette HMCS Hawksberry. When my brother and I were young and, well, stupid, we ran up to him and asked him about war because we thought that "war was cool" at the time. The first thing he told the both of us was how he watched a merchant ship with four thousand men was torpedoed by a German U-boat. The sad thing was was that he couldn't do a thing to save any one of them. A bit of a morbid thing he mentioned, was that the last decision that the "survivors" made was how they were going to die: death by drowning, or death by burning, as the oil and desiel was burning on the surface of the water.

I know that this is a bit late for Rememberance Day (or whatever holiday everybody else uses to honour their military in the world), but hopefully this story reinforces the idea that we should remember those who gave their lives for our rights and freedoms, and that war, any war, really sucks ass.



my condolences ......we owe our lives to so many like him
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Message 69458 - Posted: 21 Jan 2011, 13:28:43 UTC

truly sorry for your loss...
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Profile Eric Ogletree

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Message 69564 - Posted: 1 Feb 2011, 13:06:29 UTC

Thanks guys. Kind of weird, though. The grandfather I knew seemed to have disapeared five years ago because of the Alzeimers, but to go to his funeral felt odd. Know what I mean?
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Message 69580 - Posted: 2 Feb 2011, 12:12:26 UTC - in response to Message 69564.  

Thanks guys. Kind of weird, though. The grandfather I knew seemed to have disapeared five years ago because of the Alzeimers, but to go to his funeral felt odd. Know what I mean?


YES I do!! My aunt had Alzheimer's and when we were all younger she called me 'her favorite nephew', at the end she would ask people 'who is the big guy?'! I did not go see her at all when she was in the hospital, I want to remember her as she used to be!! My mom now has Dementia, I do not go see her either as she too has no clue who I am anymore, I do not want to remember my mom that way either!!
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Profile Eric Ogletree

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Message 69610 - Posted: 6 Feb 2011, 2:30:08 UTC - in response to Message 69580.  
Last modified: 6 Feb 2011, 2:30:42 UTC

Thanks guys. Kind of weird, though. The grandfather I knew seemed to have disapeared five years ago because of the Alzeimers, but to go to his funeral felt odd. Know what I mean?


YES I do!! My aunt had Alzheimer's and when we were all younger she called me 'her favorite nephew', at the end she would ask people 'who is the big guy?'! I did not go see her at all when she was in the hospital, I want to remember her as she used to be!! My mom now has Dementia, I do not go see her either as she too has no clue who I am anymore, I do not want to remember my mom that way either!!


It's weird, isn't it? It's like the personality of the person who you knew dies, but the physical "shell" of a person continues to function. Don't know if my words are doing it justice here or not, but can definately relate to how you're viewing your mother.

The Grandfather I knew was a tough ol' bird, in that he never shed a tear for just anything (except for WW2 type stuff). In fact, we were talking about how he'd be too stubborn to die... After all, hundreds of thousands of screaming Nazi's couldn't kill him, so why would Alzheimers, right? Okay, exagerating, of course about my Grandfather, but you get the point... Hopefully... :D The last time I saw him alive, that same Grandfather I knew just wasn't there.

Oh, and one little tid-bit of info I found out about Alzheimer's patients is that after they catch the bitch-of-a-disease (pardon my language, but trying to be honest here), is that the life expectancy is between 3 and 7 years. Don't know if anybody else had brought this up before, but thought it was kind of interesting...
There are 10 types of people in the world:
Those who understand binary, and those who don't.
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