Alzheimer’s disease plays no favorites. It’s the Great Equalizer. Just ask Kim Campbell, wife of singer Glen Campbell, who was diagnosed with the disease in 2011 and now lives in a memory care community in Nashville.
“Physically, he’s really strong and healthy, but cognitively, he’s not doing so well,” the 56-year-old Kim said in an interview. “He’s in the later stages of Alzheimer’s. He’s lost his ability to communicate. He doesn’t understand anything anyone is saying to him, but he understands the universal languages of smiles and hugs and sometimes music.”
Kim was in North Texas last week to speak to senior living health professionals at a management symposium presented by Irving-based Greystone, which advises senior living communities.
Glen, 78, was first diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment in 2009, and his decline has been slow, Kim said.
“In the early and middle stages, he was very, very high-functioning because he had the support that he needed to maintain,” she said. “The doctors told us that because he played music — music actually engages all of the brain and everything up there in all the different regions are firing all at the same time and it seems to help the brain globally.”
Experts say for seniors with memory ailments, music can trigger intense emotions and memories in ways that other tools can’t.
“Music has power, especially for individuals with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias, and it can spark compelling outcomes even in the very late stages of the disease,” says the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. “When used appropriately, music can shift mood, manage stress-induced agitation, stimulate positive interactions, facilitate cognitive function and coordinate motor movements.”
The Campbells wanted to use Glen’s music to bring awareness to Alzheimer’s disease, so they went on a national tour in 2011 — the year he was diagnosed — and on a United Kingdom tour that same year.
They were upfront with fans about Glen’s ailment.
“We talked about we need to let the fans know just in case he repeats himself a lot or there’s some odd behavior,” Kim said. “We wanted to make them aware and let them know what was going on and hopefully, they would be supportive, and they were.”
The Campbells also have drawn support from their musician children.
“They traveled with us and backed him up on the road,” Kim said. “Cal played drums, Ashley’s an incredible banjo player and keyboardist and our son Shannon was on guitar.
“When Glen would turn around and see his kids back there playing music, he had the biggest smile on his face.”
Glen recently picked up his latest Grammy Award for Best Country Song for “I’m Not Gonna Miss You,” which he co-wrote with Julian Raymond for the 2014 documentary Glen Campbell: I’ll Be Me.
The song is up for an Oscar for best Original Song.
“The film is about family, love, supporting one another,” said Kim, who accepted the Grammy on her husband’s behalf. “Glen is such a hero for allowing himself to be filmed while having Alzheimer’s to bring awareness to this disease. It’s making the best out of a bad situation.”
She’s learned to depend on family and friends for help in caring for Glen.
“The main thing is that you cannot do this alone,” Kim said. “No one can take care of somebody who has Alzheimer’s by themselves. If you do, the disease will probably take you down as well.
“A lot of times, caregivers who are trying it on their own become so depressed and isolated and they neglect their own health that they become ill as well.”
Glen’s ability to recognize Kim has begun to wane.
“It comes and goes,” she said. “Sometimes he gets my daughter and I confused because she’s blonde like me. He rarely uses my name but sometimes it does pop up.”
Kim notes that Alzheimer’s is a progressive illness. “I just never know what the next day is going to bring.”
And it weighs on her.
“When you wake up in the morning, you should be able to open your eyes and go, ‘Oh, the birds, they’re singing, the sun is shining, what am I going to do today?’
“But when I open my eyes, in the morning, it’s just, oh no. It’s just so heartbreaking and it’s just always there with me, that heaviness.”
But then she counts her blessings.
“I start trying to think, ‘How can I be a blessing to Glen today and the other residents of there as well?’ I try to minister to them everytime we go see Glen.”
Pamela Yip
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11 BANDS THAT SOLDIERED ON WITHOUT THEIR ICONIC LEAD SINGER
As years pile on, this potential list of bands that continued to rock after their “iconic” lead singer departed multiplies at an impossible pace. At this point, which veteran band hasn’t replaced its lead singer or another serious core member? A definitive list would take far too many Interweb pages. Besides, what’s the “Comments” section for, but for you to add your favorites to the list! In fact, I’m leaving Black Sabbath off this list, just so you can write them in! Not to mention Genesis! Who I’ve apparently just mentioned. Oops. —Rob O’Connor
11. Foreigner
10. Alice in Chains
09. Journey
08. Pink Floyd
07. Queen
06. Deep Purple
05. Black Flag
04. The Cars
03. Judas Priest
02. AC/DC
01. Van Halen
Van Halen looked ripe for failure once the iconic David Lee Roth left the group for a solo career. At first, it appeared Roth would run with the devil right up the charts. Except Roth miscalculated just how many cover songs his audience would withstand, and the speed-limit averse Sammy Hagar cruised to victory. Thinking they still had the Midas Touch, Van Halen hired Gary Cherone to replace Hagar on 1998’s Van Halen III, for what was their biggest and longest-lasting boo-boo. Though they reunited briefly with Hagar, no studio album resulted. It took 14 years for them to record the David Lee Roth-led follow-up, 2012’s A Different Kind of Truth, which received mostly positive reviews.
[…] By Barb Dye […]