[Mr. Morals]

This is a heart-breaking story about former Wisconsin Senator William Proxmire (1957-1989). :-(...

[Old Sarge]

Heart-breaking isn't the word.

Sometimes, I wonder just how much we do with research. Where does it all go?

[cricket]

Sad. Very sad. Do hope research soon finds a way to end this hideous disease.

[You Dirty Rats]

Heart-breaking all right. I am going to visit my father in Miami next weekend. He can't recognize anyone, and is only 74.

There may be a worse disease out there, but I haven't experienced it in my family.

[pogo101]

Always did like the Golden Fleece awards (although it must be pointed out that Proxmire was hypocritical in his support of dairy price supports and subsidies). I am sorry to hear of his, or anyone's, being ill with this ailment.

[Paladin2b]

"heart-breaking"? Perhaps to Proxmire's family; my heart goes out to them.

However, I think we would all do well to remember just what Senator Proxmire's public career was like with respect to scientific research. Yep, he was a big enemy of funding R&D, with his stupid "Golden Fleece" awards that never seemed to be awarded to crummy social welfare boondoggles, but always to some group of scientists on a federal grant that were guilty of thinking outside the box, pursuing research in some way that Proxmire didn't or couldn't understand. NASA alone has never recovered from his career.

And so he now sits in a fog of unknowing blankness. Who's to say that we might not have made some huge advances in understanding Alzheimer's decades ago from some research he helped s***-can? If we might have, then his fate might not be poetic justice, but it is still ironic.

[ladyinred]

So very very sad, but at least he is at peace, and happy as a 3 year old. It is the family that is suffering, because the person who you loved isn't really there anymore.

[JoeSixPack1]

Cry me a river! I never expected to reveal this on FR..BUT!....

I'm a full time caregiver to an Alzheimer infected Mom.

I singlehandedly take care of her. I have no government help, monitarily or otherwise. I gave up my life in '96 when her disease almost destroyed her. She's 81 now. I never married.

I don't have $3 to $7 thousand a month for nursing homes or nursing care. I pay for everything out of my personal life savings which is almost at an end. Nurses cost $18 to $22 an hour. Her requirements are luckily minimal but her disease is in the final stages.

For me to walk out my front door costs me an avg of $20 bucks an hour for nurses. I have no family help. I shop once a week and pay all my bills online.

Medicare has no provisions for alzheimers. Medicaid does, but requires signing over her estate to the government if her retirement income does not cover the expenses, so inotherwords useless.

I'm pretty fed up with hearing all these sob stories from ex Senators or Hollywood big wigs or even our cherished President Reagan's family that have "other people" care for their familie's alzheimers patient and look for sympathy.

Try doing this sometime in your life and get back to me with the tears.

Lastly, my passion for my Harley is still strong and sneaking out at 1am (hoping she doesn't wake) for an hour and a half ride is my only escape.

Looking forward there is only a funeral and my own old age.

[StACase]

I think everyone in Wisconsin met this man at least once. I know that I shook his hand in front of the flower building at the Wisconsin State Fair several different years.

He's the only Democrat I ever voted for. All though the last time he ran I pulled the "R" lever for the first time, and have been doing so ever since.

[aristeides]

Proxmire appears in the third volume of Caro's life of LBJ, as a Democratic senator with the guts to defy Johnson.

By the way, smoking prevents Alzheimer's. Depending on how you look at it, it either cuts the incidence in half, or postpones the onset by five years.

[First_Salute]

Bump.