WAUWATOSA, Wis. — November is Alzheimer’s Awareness Month and in honor of his late wife, former Wisconsin Gov. Marty Schreiber shares their journey through the disease and thanks to his new memoir, their love is now reaching a national stage.
“If there's one thing that's worse than Alzheimer's, it's ignorance of the disease,” said Marty Schreiber, author of “My Two Elaines".
In his new memoir, “My Two Elaines,” Schreiber reflects on the life of his late wife, Elaine, who fought against the devastating effects of Alzheimer’s disease for the last 20 years.
Marty says seeing the Elaine he had known since he was 14 slowly evolve into someone completely different was incredibly painful, but taught him so much.
“There were things I wish I would have done; moments of joy that we passed up and I made her life more miserable than it already was. And then I finally determined that I've got to do something in order to help people, even myself, understand how we should deal with this disease,” said Schreiber.
Marty says he felt compelled to share their story, hoping that the information would give other caretakers who were in similar challenging and anxiety-ridden situations, a small glimmer of hope.
“If we determine we're going to focus our goal on trying to help our loved one live their best life possible, and how we can try and help ourselves live our best life possible, we're going to be able to better deal with this disease,” said Schreiber.
And now that message is reaching readers nationwide, after Marty’s story of love and loss made its way to the TODAY show [click here].
On Thursday, family and friends gathered to watch Marty share his caregiving journey and how he walked the delicate bridge between his two Elaines.
“Emotionally, it’s so hard to deal with. But, once you can combine the intellectual understanding and then also know that you're going to be making a difference and carrying on Elaine's legacy, it makes it so much easier to move from one day to the next,” said Schreiber.
