by Frank Schroth

A capacity crowd filled Lomardo’s the other day and they weren’t there for the food. They were there to celebrate and show support for our library. It was the 10th year for the Literary Gala hosted by the Milton Library Foundation, and this year they took a bit of a risk. The featured authors, Lisa Genova and Greg O’Brien, spoke on the topic of Alzheimer’s disease.

Greg O’Brien is a journalist who suffers from early onset of Alzheimer’s which he has written about in On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s. Ms. Genova, who studied neuroscience at Harvard, is the best-selling author of several novels inlcuding Still Alice about a 50-year-old woman who realizes she is beginning to suffer from Alzheimer’s. The novel has been made into a film starring Julianne Moore and Kristen Stewart (view a clip here). It is difficult topic and one that is neither easy nor pleasant to talk about. You don’t “catch it” or “come down with it” or “contract it” — it just happens.

I was not smitten with the topic when I learned who the speakers were, but a gentle nudge out of our comfort zone is not a bad thing. Judging from questions and comments by the audience, there is no doubt that the topic resonated strongly with them. So thank you Milton Library Foundation.

The key take away from the words of O’Brien and Genova is that we need to start acknowledging and talking about it, as that is the first step in addressing it, and in time perhaps conquering it. Genova drew a parallel to cancer, which she said was a once unmentionable disease, but people confront it now and there are fundraisers, research, and some progress toward treating it more effectively. So, too, can this happen with Alzheimer’s she argued

Public awareness is growing, principally from people, like O’Brien, who are going public with their personal struggles to generate attention and sensitivity. These include a recent documentary, I’ll Be Me, about Glen Campbell’s experience. Closer to home is a documentary A Marriage to Remember, which we wrote a post on here. Coming up this week is a talk by Dr. Robert Stern of Boston University on Understanding Azheimer’s at Fuller Village (learn more here.)

This morning I sat down with the newspaper and came across this column by Bella English (also a Milton resident): “Couple educates others about early-onset Alzheimer’s”. It begins:

In 2012, Ken Sullivan began struggling in his job at a financial services firm in Boston. He had always gotten good evaluations, but was feeling stressed, anxious, more disorganized, and less outgoing.

The year before, his wife began to notice that he would go out on errands and return home without having done them. (read the full article here.)

Circling back to fiction, there is Alice Munro’s touching 1999 short story, The Bear Came Over the Mountain, which illustrates art’s ability to articulate the inexpressible. You can read the story here. This too was made into a film starring Julie Christie. The film Away From Her is available at the MIlton Public Library.

(Note: I am a member of the Milton Library Board of Trustees.)