To Johnny, with Love

John Albert was fifty-four years old when the first symptoms of early onset Alzheimer's appeared. He was a family man who loved life and everything it had to offer. John was an outdoorsman with an ambition to own and develop a small part of British Columbia's wilderness crown land. He succeeded but when he walked on it for the last time, this mind-robbing illness had already left its mark on him. He did not recognize it as "his land" any longer. John battled the aggressive disease for ten years, supported by his family. The day finally came when his wife, Dagmar, had to make the heart-wrenching decision to place her husband in a care facility. Five years later, his condition had progressed to a point where he had to be transferred to the extended care unit of the local hospital. He passed away two years later. John was seventy years old.