Moses Lake residents walk to fight Alzheimer's

MOSES LAKE — Grandpa Simpson loved the outdoors.

“We always went camping and fishing with him,” remembered his granddaughter Stephanie Johnson.

“He was a teaser. Loved to tease his grandkids. And take them fishing,” said his daughter Arna Johnson. But at the same time, “he was somebody that was always there for you,” Stephanie said.

But Arnold – everybody always called him Arnie – Simpson was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and the disease stole all that.

Tommy Porter’s mom was “fun-loving, energetic – full of life, period,” he said. She was very family-oriented, he said.

Jay Kincaid’s grandmother was “the smartest person I’ve ever known. When she was in high school, she taught high school.” he said.

Alzheimer’s Disease stole all that, from both women. “It took her personality away,” Porter said. His family-oriented mom didn’t know her family anymore.

Sons and daughters, grandsons and granddaughters, other family members, friends, caregivers turned out for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s Saturday morning. It was the fifth year for the walk in Moses Lake. The course took walkers across Yonezawa Boulevard (with the help of students from the Moses Lake High School Key Club) down the street and back to Yonezawa Park, a 3-mile walk.

Money raised through the walk stays in Moses Lake to help Alzheimer’s victims and their families, said organizer Laurie Ahmann in an earlier interview. Donations will be accepted through the end of the year. Donations can be made at the Alzheimer’s Association website, www.alz.org, on the page for the Moses Lake walk.

But it’s just as important, Ahmann said, to raise awareness of the disease and the toll it takes on victims and families.

The Alzheimer’s Association estimates that about 110,000 people in Washington have the disease in 2017. But Alzheimer’s also has an impact on everybody in the immediate vicinity.

“This disease is relentless,” said Joel Loiacono, the Alzheimer’s Association regional director for eastern Washington and northern Idaho. His mom Betty was in banking for 30 years, was a trust officer, and now can’t balance a checkbook, he said.

The goal of the Alzheimer’s walk and Alzheimer’s research, he said, is to make Alzheimer’s one of those diseases that have to be explained to succeeding generations, like polio.

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.