My name is Gary Bricker. I have been diagnosed with “early (or “young”) onset” Alzheimer’s disease. I am, or more correctly I used to be, a transactional Real Estate Attorney, and as such I primarily created commercial real estate documents such as leases, purchase agreements, construction contracts and the like. I never worked for a law firm and always worked for companies that owned and/or leased a great deal of real estate due to the needs of their core business, or were companies solely in the real estate business. Now I can no longer do any legal work and I miss being able to do so. In fact I lost my last two jobs for large companies, one of which was with a national company where I was a Vice President and Corporate Real Estate Counsel. I once was very good at my profession and it filled me with satisfaction to help companies/people get their real estate needs fulfilled. The realization that this disease was the reason that I lost my last two jobs came hard, but it also answered the question as to why I had struggled so much in those jobs and ultimately lost them.
I am lucky in so many ways, however, mainly because I married a wonderful woman – my wife Lisa. She and I have begun this new chapter in our lives, dealing with this insidious disease that I have. In a way it has been a blessing to have been diagnosed, because it answered many questions – prior to the diagnosis we had no explanation for my forgetfulness. I thought I might have Attention Deficit Disorder and Lisa thought maybe I was just not paying attention to what was said, etc. because I couldn’t always remember things she talked to me about. Now we have the answer and we have learned so much about Alzheimer’s and other types of Memory Loss, which has helped us to cope with the disease.
As a result of my diagnosis, and the realization that this disease currently has no cure and ends in death, we wish to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. Unless a cure is found, this disease is going to decimate the Baby Boomer generation – and frankly already has a strangle hold on many of us due to income loss, cost of care and other expenses. Lisa and I decided to create AlzAcrossAmerica – a non-profit organization aimed at creating greater awareness of this disease – to let people that are affected by Alzheimer’s and other memory loss problems know that they are not alone and there is support available to them and the care-partners that assist and support them. We look forward to hearing your stories as we share our stories with you on this journey called "life".
GB
I am lucky in so many ways, however, mainly because I married a wonderful woman – my wife Lisa. She and I have begun this new chapter in our lives, dealing with this insidious disease that I have. In a way it has been a blessing to have been diagnosed, because it answered many questions – prior to the diagnosis we had no explanation for my forgetfulness. I thought I might have Attention Deficit Disorder and Lisa thought maybe I was just not paying attention to what was said, etc. because I couldn’t always remember things she talked to me about. Now we have the answer and we have learned so much about Alzheimer’s and other types of Memory Loss, which has helped us to cope with the disease.
As a result of my diagnosis, and the realization that this disease currently has no cure and ends in death, we wish to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. Unless a cure is found, this disease is going to decimate the Baby Boomer generation – and frankly already has a strangle hold on many of us due to income loss, cost of care and other expenses. Lisa and I decided to create AlzAcrossAmerica – a non-profit organization aimed at creating greater awareness of this disease – to let people that are affected by Alzheimer’s and other memory loss problems know that they are not alone and there is support available to them and the care-partners that assist and support them. We look forward to hearing your stories as we share our stories with you on this journey called "life".
GB
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