Hello All,
Well...David and I "officially" met in our Alzheimer's caregiver support group (every other Monday...6-7:30) two and a half years ago. You get the "Hi, hi, hi" and then some background as each person speaks. David stood out immediately. He became (to me) the smart, funny, practical guy who knew alotta stuff about Alzheimer's and how to handle it. He was the BEST group participant. Patient when someone needed to unload. Giving them answers to questions they didn't even realize they were asking. I thought to myself "This is a guy I would probably know outside of Group, but I don't..." Then two years ago I was directing a reading of a play by my friend Rick Willett at E.S.T. and David was in the audience. I thought to myself... "Why is someone from my Alzheimer's group here???" Then I looked him in the eye and he approached me. "Eliza, I have been to your house." Huh??? Turns out David was a dear friend of Anne's who was a dear friend of Rick's and they had come to the going away party I had for Rick when he left for Los Angeles. It made perfect sense. I can't even begin to describe what he did for his parents the last few years. He worked at it, and researched it, and lived it as hard as he could. The hardest thing for me to deal with the last few weeks is that the last conversation we had, on the street, after group, a few months ago, after his Dad died, was David telling me that he was leaving the group, and that he could move on - and that he had finally (after a loooong time) spent numerous nights in his own apartment, and not on Long Island. I was so happy for him. "He's moving on with his life." No one deserved it more!
Best,
Eliza Beckwith
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