Yesterday, I watched the Kansas
City Chiefs play the Steelers in a playoff game. Any year the Chiefs made the
playoffs, we fans were hopeful that the Chiefs would make it to the
Superbowl. We always hoped we wouldn’t be disappointed—again.
During commercial breaks, I watched
other fans’ reactions online. About the time I realized the Chiefs were going
to fall to the curse of their playoff games, a photo of a youthful Jim popped
up on my Facebook newsfeed.
Jim was the sole reason that I
became a Chief’s fan. Through winning seasons and losing seasons, he was
steadfast in his loyalty. During the early years of our marriage, Monday night
football was opposite the movie of the week. With one TV set, I never watched a
single movie during football season.
Although, it seemed magical that
Jim’s photo appeared on my phone just as I was thinking of him, I scrolled past
other old family photos. Jim’s cousin Debbie had decided to make an online
album of old family photos, and I assumed she had posted the photo. I downloaded
the photo and added it to my own online album of Jim’s pictures.
“Can I steal this for the Fisher
album?” she asked.
“I just stole it myself. That’s
where I thought it was,” I replied.
It didn’t take me long to figure
out that my nephew John had posted it.
Seeing Jim’s photo put a lot of
perspective in my outlook, and reminded me of the real urgency of now. When he
was diagnosed with dementia of the Alzheimer’s type, my goal became to do
anything possible to change the outcome.
The urgency to do something, rather
than patiently wait for the inevitable, was part of my nature. I trolled the
internet looking for anything to stave off a degenerative, fatal disease. I
tried to get Jim enrolled in drug trials. He was turned down for one trial
because he was too young and for another because he had lost the ability to
communicate.
I began to go to the Alzheimer’s
forum to advocate for more research dollars. I saw the urgency to find a cure
in the eyes of caregivers, and my heart hurt for them. I felt their pain and knew
the disappointment of hearing a doctor say, “Even if they find a cure, the
disease is so far advanced that it’s too late for him.”
As the years went by and the
disease won, I continued my advocacy, as have many others who lost loved ones. We
all share the same hopes and dreams—a cure for Alzheimer’s.
I recently read the “I Have a Dream”
speech Martin Luther King, Jr., delivered at the Lincoln Memorial in 1963.
Although his speech was loaded with quotable sentences, one phrase caught and
held my attention. King spoke of “the fierce urgency of now.”
Many of us won’t step out of our
comfort zone to fight for our cause with the conviction of Martin Luther King,
Jr. Most of us anonymously fight our fight. Some of the rich and famous meet
the challenge as they or their loved ones discover Alzheimer’s when it strikes
close to home.
Just this week, I learned that the
former head coach of the Kansas City Chiefs Marty Schottenheimer has Alzheimer’s.
This too, helps me put the Chief’s loss into its proper perspective. Next season,
the Chief’s have a new start and a chance to redeem themselves.
As far as Alzheimer’s, there are no
second chances. With more people dying each day that passes without a cure, we
have the “fierce urgency of now” to end Alzheimer’s.
Copyright © January 2017 by L.S.
Fisher
No comments:
Post a Comment