Michèle Clav­ery

Pres­i­dent, Alzheimer’s As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (AzATT)

Our fa­ther lived with Alzheimer’s dis­ease for ap­prox­i­mate­ly 15 years be­fore death. In the years lead­ing up to his pass­ing, as a fam­i­ly, we had to de­vise ways of treat­ing with our mar­vel­lous­ly won­der­ful, car­ing and lov­ing fa­ther. He was the pil­lar of strength in our house­hold, and the go-to per­son who took charge of all busi­ness mat­ters, so when it was of­fi­cial that he was liv­ing with Alzheimer’s dis­ease, it struck me to my heart for I couldn’t un­der­stand how an avid read­er, for ex­am­ple, like my fa­ther was, now sat in a place that made him seem an in­fant. I say ‘seem’ be­cause I have come to know and un­der­stand that those liv­ing with the dis­ease are not chil­dren. That, first and fore­most, must be un­der­stood when treat­ing with per­sons liv­ing with the dis­ease. My moth­er was very care­ful to en­sure that our fa­ther’s dig­ni­ty was nev­er com­pro­mised, and we, his chil­dren, fol­lowed suit.

The very first meet­ing I at­tend­ed at the Alzheimer’s As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (AzATT), served as an eye-open­er. In that one meet­ing I learnt a great deal about the dis­ease: what to ex­pect and how to care for some­one liv­ing with Alzheimer’s (I learnt very soon not to use the word “suf­fer­ing” when speak­ing of some­one af­fect­ed by the dis­ease. I com­ment­ed then, that if my moth­er and my broth­ers and I had the in­for­ma­tion now in my pos­ses­sion from the out­set, car­ing for our dad would have been more man­age­able.

The pur­pose of my sto­ry is this: I feel it my du­ty to spread the word about the Alzheimer’s As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go (AzATT). As car­ers, we feel the stress and frus­tra­tion most. It is in­cum­bent on us, there­fore, to en­sure that we have the right tools, the pa­tience, and the love to care for those who have cared for us.

So, as our as­so­ci­a­tion cel­e­brates World Alzheimer’s Month 2021, I am mak­ing a spe­cial ap­peal to young peo­ple in par­tic­u­lar, as well as all oth­ers, to join the Alzheimer’s As­so­ci­a­tion of Trinidad and To­ba­go. We are a non-prof­it or­gan­i­sa­tion in re­al need of heads, hands and hearts to help ad­vance the as­so­ci­a­tion’s cause.

For more in­for­ma­tion, feel free to reach us at #345-6549

or:

www.alztrin­ba­go.org

https://www.face­book.com/Alzheim­er­sAs­so­ci­a­tionofTrinidadand­To­ba­go/