I am a big fan of Terry Pratchett’s writing. My public library has an “adopt-an-author” program and my family adopted Mr. Pratchett. (I guess that makes me his mother, although I’m younger than he is.) Every time a new Terry Pratchett book is published, my library buys the book immediately, sends me the bill, and lets me be the first one to check it out when it arrives. We’ve been doing this for about 10 years now, and it’s a great way to share books we love with a few thousand of our closest friends in our community.
Sheezsky. His “Wee Free Men” young adult books were among my son’s favorites.
As many know, early-onset AD is something that touches me very closely.
Well, if this doesn’t convince everyone that the whole notion that “doing crossword puzzles” will keep you Alzheimer’s-free
is bunk, nothing I can say will help.*
We, like Terry Pratchett, are involved in the search for a cure, and I wish him the best of luck.
*sorry…no medical “advice” intended! Go ahead and do crosswords if you like 'em. Seriously. I mean it.
I just read about this new one today. We seem to be so close to getting a truly effective treatment for Alzheimers that it saddens me every time I hear of another great mind that has been affected too soon for these treatments to have come out.
Sir Terry has kindly consented to allow a TV crew to follow him around for a year to document his progress, or regression.
The BBC showed the first installment last week. It was great to see the man observing his own condition, mostly in a detached way. But the particular kind of Alzheimer’s he suffers from affects the visual processes. One of the more poignant moments was during a book-reading, where he could no longer distinguish one line of text from another. As he found himself repeating what he read, he asked the audience “Are you in tears yet?” Finally he had to stop. It was clearly a great embarrassment. He said “I’d like you all to go away now, please.” The audience treated it lightly, but it sounded as though it came from the heart.
He was reading from his most recent book, “Nation”. We got it for Christmas. It is an excellent book, and if he never writes another, it’s a swansong to be proud of.
Terry Pratchets illness is common knowledge over here in England. He gets a lot of media coverage as IB has pointed out. He is one of the most popular authors in the Public Library system over here.
I often wonder if Alz is more prevalent these days or if there is just more awareness of it than before. A dear friend of mine is a sufferer and it is heartbreaking to see, on a first hand basis, a once fine mind in decline.
We can only hope for advances in medical science that will help those afflicted.
