I’ve been working on the “Mourning the Living” series for almost as long as I’ve been a health reporter for The Denver Post.
During my first week in the newsroom, an editor came to my desk with a list of potential story ideas, including a look at what happens to a family when two parents have Alzheimer’s.
It was July, and almost two weeks prior, Annabel Bowlen had revealed she had the same disease already afflicting her husband, Denver Broncos owner Pat Bowlen. In a way, the series is a follow-up to the initial story about her diagnosis.
I latched onto the idea fairly quickly after it was proposed, in part because it touches on a broader topic I’m interested in: caregivers and aging.
My interest in this topic is driven by my family’s experience. My grandmother had a brain aneurysm more than 20 years ago, robbing her of her short-term memory and altering her personality.
She does well despite the aneurysm, but requires constant care from family members — my grandfather was her primary caregiver until his death in 2017 — and in-home aides. Having seen how much work it takes to care for someone, I knew I wanted to write about similar issues, especially as the population is aging.
I just didn’t know what exactly to write about, so when the editor tossed out the idea of an Alzheimer’s story it stuck.
I’m also familiar with the disease as my great-grandfather had either Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia before his death. At the time, doctors weren’t sure which he had, but his sister was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, leaving my family to believe he also had the disease.
Once I decided to pursue the story, I needed to find a family to profile. I scoured social media, searching Facebook groups, Twitter and other forums for someone who may have posted about having two parents with Alzheimer’s.
I had no luck.
So next I asked the local chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association if they knew of someone who fit the category. They put me in touch with Cindee Gierhart, a daughter of Tony and Josie Sanchez.
It was August when I first met the family. From the beginning, they were open about the struggles they face with the disease — from their concern about affording a nursing home to their worries about Alzheimer’s continuing to slip from one generation to the next.
Indeed, the only time Tony’s current wife, Teddy, declined a request from us was when we asked to see the gun that is still kept in the house.
She declined to show us because there was a chance Tony would be able to figure out where the gun was based on the photos, which would defeat the family’s purpose in hiding the .22-caliber pistol.
I worked with Helen H. Richardson, a staff photographer, on the series, and over a period of several months, we visited and checked in by phone with the family (our trips to Greeley were stalled for a month-and-a-half after I fell and broke my foot).
Where Tony and Josie are in the progression of Alzheimer’s is one of the most difficult — and interesting — aspects of reporting this series.
They are in the early-to-mid stages, meaning the signs of the disease are not always immediately clear. This presented an opportunity to include the voices of those with Alzheimer’s in the series. But how does a reporter show the effects of the disease in a story when they aren’t always visible?
One day in October, Helen and I spent about 12 hours with the family, beginning at 5 a.m., which is around the time Teddy and Tony start their day.
That day we saw two symptoms previously described by Teddy: Tony had an anxiety attack and left early from his granddaughter’s volleyball game later in the evening.
There was also an incident at the marijuana dispensary last year, in which Tony allegedly threatened the workers. He said it was the first time he’s forgotten something at such a level.
That story was recounted to me by the family. Tony remembers going to the dispensary, but not what he said. Because he didn’t remember part of the incident, I requested the police report to help fill in some of the gaps of the story.
I included these three anecdotes in the series because they show readers what it’s like living with Alzheimer’s.
Finally, I could not have undertaken this series if my editors hadn’t given me the time it requires to report and write such stories. It can take weeks, sometimes months, to really get to know your subjects and tell these kinds of stories in a thoughtful, in-depth way.
