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Alzheimer's fundraiser is tonight; walk is tomorrow
It was almost 60 years ago that Harry Garrett met a young woman named Lois at a dance at Quantico Marine Corps Base. He was serving in the Navy and she in the Marines and it was love at almost-first sight -- at least for Harry.
“My dad looked at her, I think it was on the first date, and said 'You're going to marry me,'” recalled their daughter, Becky Young.
And he did.
The Garretts have now been married for almost 54 years. Lois had achieved the rank of sergeant when she left the Marines, got married and bore six children.
Harry rose to the rank of chief petty officer in the Navy and worked three jobs to support his family.
Today, the Garretts are still married, but they're not the same couple.
About a decade ago, Harry was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. Lois has been taking care of him ever since.
“He's not the same man,” Young said. “My father was the strongest person I've ever met and he's the weakest person I've ever met now.”
Alzheimer's, the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, is a fatal form of dementia that also causes victims to lose the ability to walk or swallow.
Even worse, those who suffer from the disease eventually lose all sense of self, all memories, and often all of their good dispositions.
“He's getting to be a handful,” Young said of her father. “He gets angry quickly because he doesn't understand.”
Young said that in her entire life, she never heard her father raise his voice to her mother until the Alzheimer's began progressing.
Now, she said, it's a regular thing.
“It's so hard on the person who is taking care of (the patient,” she said. “You can see why I would want to do something, whatever it takes to get this stopped.”
On Saturday, she will be doing something. Young will join hundreds of others from the community at the first-ever Prince William Memory Walk to stop Alzheimer's Disease.
Memory Walks, the Alzheimer's Association's signature events, are held every year in cities around the country but this is the first year that Prince William will host one.
Young has formed a walking team called “Harry's Kids,” a nod to her father and the six children he raised. One of the team members is Young's 4-year-old son Michael, who will be walking for the third time.
Her daughter, Kayla Hutchison, will also be walking. She and Young may be easy to spot in the crowd as they both have the Alzheimer's Association's logo tattooed on the backs of their necks.
Young's logo is accompanied by the word “Memories.” Hutchison's says “Grandaddy.”
Young said her 19-year-old daughter was always very close to her grandfather and got the tattoo on her 18th birthday to honor him.
The “Harry's Kids” team hopes to raise $5,000 by Saturday and to do it, they're planning a fundraiser on Friday night.
Beginning at 7 p.m. on Friday, Clubhouse Sports Bar (9008 Mathis Ave. in Manassas) will host the Alzheimer's fundraiser. There is no cover charge -- just donations, Young said. Raffle tickets will be sold for $1 each or six for $5. Prizes will include a VIP party at Hooters and other goods and services donated by area businesses.
In addition, door prizes will be given away and more local merchandise will be auctioned off.
Young and the team co-captain, Heather Huntington, are organizing the event to raise both funds and awareness.
On Saturday morning, they'll be at the Harris Pavilion in Manassas for the start of the county's first Memory Walk.
Young said people have told her that it's naïve to think Alzheimer's could be stopped quickly enough to save her father, but she's not giving up hope.
“It might be but it might not be,” she said. “They could come up with a new drug with the money we raise on Saturday.”
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