[Granville-Hough] 11 Jul 2009 - 5 June 2004 - In Memory of those with Alzheimer's Disease

[Trustees for Granville W. Hough]

     By now, all know that former President Ronald Reagan passed away
today about 1 pm of complications of Alzheimer's Disease - pneumonia.
In the gradual progression of Alzheimer's, the last brain function to go
is the ability to swallow.  Then your body gets confused and food gets
into the lungs.  Pneumonia follows, and it does not last long.
(Pneumonia has historically been called "the old man's friend.")

     Every caretaker for Alzheimer's patients wonders how and when the
end will come.  No one wants ten years of deterioration and suffering,
not Nancy Reagan, not Granville Hough.  When David called me with
Carol's alternatives, I had been given morphine to kill the pain of my
pacemaker implant; but I could think: "God has given us an opportunity
to let Carol go with dignity.  Please let God's will be done."  And so
it was.  We were spared the agony of the Reagan family.

     Of course, Ronald Reagan was President when Kendrick and Susanna Hough
were born.  We will in the next few days hear about the good things he
did, and that is as it should be.  Kendrick in his graduation message to
me said his high school years were remarkable and full of memorable
events, both in our family and in our national life.  Perhaps it is
fitting that President Reagan's death will end an era, and mark a new
beginning.

     My tribute to Ronald Reagan, and to the Reagan Family, comes from
the forthrightness with which they admitted the problems of Alzheimer's
Disease, both for the patient and for the family.  They did not flinch,
they did not evade; they just said; "Here it is, we will do the best we
can, and we need your prayers."  This example is to me the finest one of
his entire life.