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May 16, 2012
Searching For Cecy: Reflections on Alzheimer's
Editor's Note: Judy Prescott's mother, Cecy, died right before publication of this essay, on Monday, May 14, 2012. We send Judy and her entire family our deepest sympathy for their loss.
After compiling my book, Searching For Cecy: Reflections on Alzheimer's, I thought, “Okay, you’ve dealt with it, it’s all there, time to move on.” I wanted to believe I had achieved the elusive closure I so desperately desired.
I had chronicled my mother Cecy’s journey into early-onset Alzheimer’s disease through a series of poems written over an eight-year period, matched with artwork contributed by four talented family artists.
What I didn’t know at the time was that, closure or no closure, this was the beginning of a life-changing journey for me as well as for Mom. I see now that this unsolicited adventure with Cecy has helped me to grow in important ways while continually testing my mettle.
When I discovered that the mother I had known all these years was about to skid off an icy cliff into a slow-motion free fall, I didn’t think I had the stuff. Ironically, I needed my Mom to turn to for advice.
May 15, 2012
My Life in the Third World of America
Photo caption: Previously homeless for six months, mother and child celebrate their new lives in an apartment of their own.
In November 1979, an article appeared in the L.A. Times describing hundreds of children of all ages living in the decaying, transient hotels of L.A.'s Skid Row.
Within days, a woman possessed, I began seeking a way to help and soon created a nonprofit organization, Para Los Niños (For the Children).
Within one short year, we opened a childcare center in a renovated warehouse for 90 children from 6 weeks to five years of age, pulled from streets, alleys, and hotels of the area. And that was just the beginning.
I soon found myself in a pivotal position in Skid Row as major changes began to occur around me. Thus began my 30-year career in what I call the Third World of America.
May 15, 2012
National Alzheimer's Plan: A Personal Perspective
Today, the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services released our country's first National Alzheimer's Plan, which sets a deadline of 2025 for stopping Alzheimer's Disease. In this piece, Dr. Stephen Hume offers a personal perspective on the plan -- as an advocate and as someone with the disease.
It isn’t every day that I am asked to sit in a room and listen to twenty-four highly educated and dedicated professionals plan my future. This opportunity presented itself when I was invited to attend the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) advisory council meeting in Washington, D.C. on January 17, 2012.
Four and a half years ago, my partner Candy and I sat in a small office at our regional medical center waiting for the chief of neurology to enter and give us a diagnosis.
I knew there was something wrong with my cognitive functioning and had undergone an extensive testing regimen in the proceeding weeks. I was very anxious. Candy had tried to reassure me with what might be causing my symptoms, but had not lessened my fear.
The doctor came in, sat down and said in a kind but matter of fact manner; we’ve ruled out everything we can fix – you have early stage Alzheimer’s disease.
May 14, 2012
How I Did It: Bonnie Marcus, Founder of the Bonnie Marcus Collection
In 2002, while six months pregnant with my first child, I launched my stylish stationery company, the Bonnie Marcus Collection “where fashion meets paper,” from my kitchen table in Westport, Connecticut.
Whereas some moms-to-be pour over parenting books before their baby is born, I chose to read all the business books I could find. I was determined to start a business that I could work on from home.
I had a strong background in event planning as a New York City wedding planner for many years, as well as the Director of Special Events at the 92nd Street Y (a major cultural center in New York).
I had enjoyed planning all sorts of events, from beginning to end, but as an art major in college, my favorite part of the process was helping clients with their invitations, as they set the tone for everything to follow.
May 13, 2012
Celebrating Mother's Day by Fighting Alzheimer's
As a TV reporter, I thought I had seen it all. In Philadelphia I covered every local story imaginable, and travelled for hurricanes, political conventions, a presidential impeachment and the Grammys.
At MSNBC I anchored brief news updates and extended breaking news, including live coverage of an impending storm called Katrina.
But every event I’ve covered, every story I’ve told, pales in comparison to the one I witnessed in my own backyard: the horrors of Alzheimer’s disease.
My once vibrant mother had Early Onset Alzheimer’s, an aggressive form of the disease that hits before the age of 65, often in your 40’s and 50’s. We believe my mother started showing symptoms in her 50’s. This year, while only in her 60’s, she died from this horrific disease.
May 12, 2012
The Power of the Pause
Remarks delivered on Friday, May 11, 2012 at University of Southern California's Annenberg School Commencement Ceremony
Good morning, Annenberg graduates -- and congratulations! You’ve made it through one of the most prestigious universities in the world. You are accomplished -- and, yes, you are blessed.
Blessed to be stepping out into the world with your degrees in journalism, PR, and Communication -- right at the moment when it seems like everything in the world is about communication.
We’re communicating like never before -- across borders and time zones -- on platforms, devices, computers, tablets, phones, apps, games, you name it.
Communicating 24/7-- wired and wirelessly -- talking, texting, and tweeting -- trending and friending -- to the other side of the room and the other side of the planet -- spitting out the old, in order to consume the new.
Every minute you’re awake, you’re reaching out beyond yourself -- waaay out beyond. It feels like the entire universe is an extension of your own nervous system.
You communicate instantly, automatically, and effortlessly. For you...communicating is like breathing.
And today, you’re rarin’ to go. Rarin’ to out into the “real” world -- to get a job and transform the world of communication yet again. It’s a race to be next, to be first, to be new. Sorta scary, isn’t it.
I get that -- because when I close my eyes, it feels like just yesterday that I sat where you are, and I remember exactly how I felt.
May 12, 2012
Out of the Darkness and Into the Light: A Story of Postpartum Depression
I knew something was wrong when I couldn’t eat. Crying for six weeks straight seemed odd, but I figured it was just my hormones run rampant. Losing my appetite, however, was a whole other story. That never happened!
My husband and I went to a diner and I ordered silver dollar pancakes, something I could force down despite the dull and constant nausea. Two bites later, I pushed the plate away. This was unprecedented.
Since giving birth six weeks earlier, the pit in my stomach had grown into a gaping black hole. My arms and legs tingled intermittently.
Luckily, my OB recognized the signs immediately and diagnosed me with postpartum depression (PPD). Fortunately, I didn’t have a problem bonding with my child, as many women with PPD do.
Still, I felt an unbearable sadness and an intense lethargy that left me too exhausted to do anything except worry that I may never feel normal again.
May 11, 2012
Mother’s Day Without Mother
For most people, Mother's Day brings to mind bouquets of sunny flowers in pink hues, often-obligatory brunches, and lingering in the aisles trying to find the perfect greeting card to sum up gratitude for a lifetime of love and care.
However for those of us who have suffered the loss of a mother, or a child, Mother’s Day can be a muddle of complex emotions.
On the one hand we want to be mindful that it is a celebration, but it is simultaneously a painful reminder of roles and people that we have lost.
The question of the bereaved mother is, “What do I say when well-meaning strangers ask how many children I have?”
For a bereaved child or adult missing your mother today, you wonder, who will pick you up when you fall? Who will you call when you need a recipe or a favorite uncle’s birth date?
May 11, 2012
Quick Take With...Vanessa Williams and Her Mother, Helen Williams
Quick Take With...Vanessa Williams
1. What are 3 words that come to mind when you think of your mom?
Three words that come to mind when I think of my mom are blunt, thoughtful, wily.
2. What quality do you admire most about your mother?
The quality I most admire of my mother is her strength. Call her stoic, call her determined or just plain unrelenting, my mother can face anything dished out to her and confront the chaos head on without caving, collapsing or being reduced to a puddle of tears.
3. What is the most important thing you’ve learned from your mother?
The most memorable advice my mother gave me is: "You'll always have to do better than everyone else just to be considered equal." That was in reference to growing up as a minority in my community, but it certainly translates to many aspects in life. Always do your best and that's good enough.
4. What is your favorite memory of your mother?
May 10, 2012
Quick Take With...Diane von Furstenberg
1.What are your three words to live by? Why do these words guide your life?
LOVE IS LIFE ! I try to have love guide everything that I do in my family and in my work. I have always believed that if you put that intention into the universe it will come back to you and you can make things happen!
2. What does being an "architect of change" mean to you?
It means to believe in something and to take action on behalf of that conviction. For me, it is all about empowering women through fashion, through mentoring and through philanthropy— so that they can become architects of change themselves.
3. Who do you consider to be an Architect of Change in your life? Why?
My mother was a very important force in my life. She was a tiny woman and she looked fragile but she was strong. She was a Holocaust survivor, but she never let herself become a victim. Her determination gave me life and it shaped my life. She empowered me by making me accountable for myself and encouraging me to be independent. She never said “It’s impossible,” or “It’s too complicated.”
4. What's the most important lesson you've learned in life?
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"Searching For Cecy: Reflections on Alzheimer's" by Judy Prescott t.co/4d1JUfUn
18 hours 40 min ago
Inspiration to Start Your Day... t.co/Y4MfrZsS
19 hours 35 sec ago
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