[singpilot]

I lost my father to Alzheimers last year. This vibrant, active, full of life man spent the last 7 years of his life wasting away. The mind slowly receded into a veiled world of closed perceptions. He became a child for a while, but would wake up every once in a while almost functional, with some of his memories (old ones) and would impress all of us with the clarity of those memories. Then hours later would sink again into blank stares, and non-recognition. He eventually succumbed to the lack of will to live.

Nancy Reagan sheilds us from him because she wants us all to remember Ron as the man he was, not what he has become.

There was video today of him entering church recently, and asking the nurse that was leading him to church "Who are all those people", looking confused, referring to the press and cameras.

I for one, prefer to remember the President of the United States as that.