US Olympic Gold Medalist Laurie Hernandez’ grandmother Brunilda passed away last Wednesday. It was her intent to try to see her grandmother as soon as she could, having been away in LA for the show and knowing she was battling Alzheimer’s. The day after she gave an interview about that, her grandmother passed.
Last Monday on Dancing With the Stars she and her partner Val Chmerkovskiy gave a show-stopping performance of the fox-trot. The duo wore purple in honor of her grandmother and to bring awareness to Alzheimer’s. The routine was awarded a perfect score of 30. To see the full performance go here.
“Tonight was a little hard. Sometimes you just don’t know what to say. So instead of saying anything, I danced my way through it,” Hernandez told People. November is also Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness Month.
CONFESSIONS OF A MASTER CAREGIVER 
Thank you for this. I am 52 will turn 53 the 26th of this month. I also have Alzheimer’s. I was diagnosed in 2007. I fight the battle every day and there are many days I think maybe I made the whole thing up, that there isn’t anything wrong with me. Then the day will turn and well I usually don’t remember much if anything. Alzheimer’s plays horrible games with a person. I think a more appropriate word for it would be Apocalypse. Because that is exactly what it is.
If you wouldn’t mind I would like to post my reply on my own blog as I try to let people know how I feel about this dreadful disease. You see, it doesn’t just take over my life, it takes over everyone who is around me. It devours everyone and everything. It is a lot like time that way. But I think it is far more cruel. It likes to toy with you, let you think you might beat it, or that perhaps you dreamed it all. Then suddenly it swoops in and tackles you. Tortures you. Tortures the ones you love. While it sits back and laughs and mocks you.
Alzheimer’s is the name of a man, Apocalypse is the name of what happens when instead of dying swiftly, one is forced to watch as life is slowly dragged out. It is something which forces the ones we love to watch as we are tortured again and again.