Alzheimer's event promotes awareness, rememberance

The pain of the incurable disease was on full display, as family members talked about the changes in their loved ones.

"For about the last four years, she hasn't known me," Joe Dunbeck, whose wife has Alzheimer's said. 

Dunbeck said he carries a photo of his wife Patricia with him at all times. The couple has been married for 60 years, but in 1999, their marriage changed forever when she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. 

"Things that happen every day still happen and I think 'Oh, I want to tell Pat about that,' Dunbeck said. "Then I realize I can tell her but she won't know what it is."

She also said it's an even that can help remind people not impacted by the disease how it works in thousands of lives across the state. 

"It's losing someone you love, and many times, they become a different person," Watkins said. 

Jo Anne Pfirman, whose husband died as a result of Alzheimer's, said the disease came out of nowhere for her husband. 

"He went to the hardware store one day, he was gone a really long time, came back and told me he had trouble finding the hardware store," she said. 

The candlelight reflection ceremony also recognizes Alzheimer's caregivers working across the state.