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Walking for Mama: My Memory Walks, 1997-2004, Part I

© Brenda S. Parris

Everyone who knows me well knows that I've not missed an Alzheimer's Association Memory Walk for seven years, and I don't intend to miss one. It is a highlight of every year for me. I skip co-worker's weddings, church activities, and any social or work-related events this one time a year. It is that important to me that I do this in memory of my mother and for the cause of helping other patients like her (and their caregivers) and finding a cure for this disease that began taking her from me long before her death in 1996.

I think the first year I raised just over a hundred dollars. It might have been $200 by the second year, maybe $300 the third. Four years ago I raised $700, and then the next year it was around $1000 I think Last year I raised $1300 and my newly-formed team raised $1500 altogether. This year my goal is $1500 individually and $2000 for my team.

I have walked on through a diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis, turned possible lupus, diagnosed as undifferentiated connective tissue disease later turned fibromyalgia. I feel better every year I walk. Joining me in my team last year and again next year is a coworker with severe fibromyalgia whose mother has just been diagnosed with Alzheimer's. Joining us this year walking for the first time is one who has generously sponsored me for several years, and who lost her grandmother to Alzheimer's last year. Another coworker has been walking with me for three or four years, in memory of her grandmother who died several years ago. One who walked with us several years ago had a father who disappeared and wasn't found alive, and though he had been diagnosed, she felt sure that he too had Alzheimer's.

I have been amazed at how willing people are to give to this cause. I have seen some when I have asked them say "Oh yes, oh yes!" like they just couldn't give soon enough because they have a family member affected by this disease. Several of the professors at the college where I work bring me a $100 check each. I try to reward my best donors. I beg or buy extra Memory Walk tee-shirts for them, pick up pens, notepads, and whatever free things vendors might be giving away, and bring those back to them. I have in the past purchased Vivian the Alzheimer's Awareness bear or an Alzheimer's elephant or some other stuffed animal that might be on sale at the Walk. Last year there was also an Alzheimer's store set up, with mugs and a lot of various items left over from previous walks, and I bought some of those to bring back to my best supporters. This year I have ordered several Vivian bears, some purple Alzheimer's awareness pins, and several products from my Cafe Press shop that I will give to my donors and team members to show my appreciation.

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