A Walk With a Purpose

This year Vince and I have become involved with the 2020 Walk to End Alzheimer’s and are volunteering with the Marketing Committee.

It has been a strange year to be a volunteer. We can’t meet with others on the committee in person due to COVID-19. We can’t do all the marketing activities the organization has done in previous years like putting informational stickers on coffee cups and pizza boxes to garner interest in the 2020 Walk and in the mission of the Alzheimer’s Association.

So we have been doing a lot of virtual activities. We meet monthly over the phone and see each other on screen like a 2020 version of the Brady Bunch.

Our current strategy is to forge ahead with plans to hold the Columbus Walk to End Alzheimer’s at the Columbus Commons on Sunday, September 27^th.  There is also a virtual component to the walk, but we don’t yet know what that is going to look like.

Vince and I have also formed a team to walk – we are Team Forget Me Not. In honor of my mom. And in memory of all those who have succumbed to this disease.

Things change. And for all we know, the virtual walk will be all we can do because of coronavirus health concerns.

So we’ll take it day by day and week by week until it’s time to join together – either physically or virtually – to bring focus to Alzheimer’s. 

Research.

Programs.

Help.

I’ve read that Alzheimer’s affects one in four people. Certainly it has affected me and my family. My mother has been in a memory care unit for nearly four years, but has had the disease for over ten.

And while I would give anything to have my mother back the way she was pre-Alzheimer’s, I know that’s impossible.  

But what I can do is help raise awareness of the Alzheimer’s Association. And I can help raise funds for research to find a cure and to sponsor the programs the Alzheimer’s Association provides.

There are many worthwhile causes and many opportunities to give – so I don’t ask this lightly. But if you are in a position to help support our walk and cause, I would appreciate it more than you could ever know.

We would be honored to have you join our team, too, if you are willing and able.

Our link is: http://act.alz.org/goto/JaneandVinceCordova

And I thank you so very much!

It's Not Business as Usual-Not by a Long Shot

I’ve written several blogs in the past week…but haven’t posted any.

It just seems disrespectful during these tumultuous times.

I want to smile and laugh. I’d love to be carefree. And I’d like to make other people smile if I could. But it’s nearly impossible to get back to business as usual.

Because nothing about life right now is business as usual.

Covid-19 is still a “thing” – even though it seems to have been pushed to the bottom of the page. Yet I still must wear a mask when I go to the grocery store. And I still cannot visit my mom inside her memory care unit, put my arms around her and tell her I love her.

Other events have come to the forefront that prevent business as usual.

If you’re like me, you are horrified, saddened and angered by the senseless killing of George Floyd. I don’t think I will ever get the image out of my head of now-fired and charged police officer, Derek Chauvin, with his hand in his pocket, kneeling on Floyd’s neck while Floyd begs to be let up so he can breathe.

Kneeling on a man’s neck with his hand in his pocket just screams nonchalance to me. As if it were no big deal.

Oh, but it was a very big deal.

Since that time, social media has been drowning us with videos, memes and commentaries.

Some are heartening to see: peaceful protesters waving placards reading “Black Lives Matter.” Operative word in that sentence: “peaceful.”

I watched a video last night that made me cry. The police (don’t ask me where) were holding a line and the protesters were standing almost face to face with the officers.

I worried as I was watching that violence was going to ensue. But suddenly, I saw officers putting out their hands to shake the hands of the protesters. And then there were hugs on both sides of the line. It was a lovely image that I wished were the case in every city protest.

But then I’ve also seen videos that made me cry for a different reason – the video out of Buffalo, NY, where an elderly man was shoved by an officer in riot gear enforcing a curfew. The sight of the man on the ground bleeding from his ear was absolutely horrifying.

And I pray that he recovers with no ill effects.

Did the officer mean to shove the man so hard he fell and was injured? What could the protester possibly have said to cause such a reaction?

I don’t know – and I don’t really care.

It is 2020. There are cameras everywhere. What actions may have been hidden in the past and covered up with lies are now exposed with every cell phone camera video.

So our actions have consequences. Even if we didn’t mean it. Or didn’t mean for things to go so far.

We can’t blanket statement anything these days – and we shouldn’t. There are good people and bad people. There are good, courageous men and women who put on that blue uniform every day to keep us safe.

Just as there are those who don’t deserve to wear that uniform.

There are good citizens of every creed and color. And there are bad people of the same.

What we must do is hold ourselves – and our officials – accountable. Which, to me, is what the protests are about. And I applaud that.

What I don’t applaud is the violence or the rioting or the looting or the senseless destruction of property and burning of buildings.

How does this help? How can it possibly help?

I just read that a friend of mine in Cleveland was attacked, pistol whipped and his car stolen in a random act of violence during this turbulent time. I’m grateful he is going to be all right, but he is hurting right now – in both body and soul.

And for that, I’m sorry.

I wish I could make things better. I wish I had a solution and could magically make people treat each other right. Where we could all live together in peace.

Where mothers would never have to sit with their children of color and give them “the talk” – the one where they have to tell them how to behave if they are ever pulled over or stopped by the police.

And I think of those fresh-faced, beautiful children and I hope that by the time they are adults, the world will be a little better and they won’t have to fear being held down on the ground with a knee on their neck as they beg for breath.

So, no. Nothing about life right now is “business as usual.”

And that’s the point.