The Kentucky chapter of the Alzheimer's Association provides free resources and support to caregivers and those living with Alzheimer's.

It's where Barbara starts and her husband Al, turn for support after his Alzheimer's diagnosis in 28.

Barbara says her role as a caregiver during her husband's nine year battle was challenging and heartbreaking, but that they both made the most with the time they had left.

I kept telling them for two years there was something wrong, and he kept telling me no.

There wasn't.

And then he began to forget.

So finally we were at a family reunion, and my son said, You know, Dad, you've told me that story three times already.

Well, it took our son to get him to pay attention.

I think that there's two reasons that people don't talk about it or don't acknowledge it.

One is denial.

There's a lot of denial that goes on.

And the second one is they truthfully don't see it.

I don't think they see to the extent that other people do.

Many times you're not going to get that person with Alzheimer's or other dementia to realize it or to accept it or to acknowledge it.

So, you know, you might have to be the one that just does the little pushing.

We went to our regular doctor or family doctor, and he didn't he just pooh poohed it.

He didn't think there was anything wrong.

And so but I did ask for a referral and we went to a neurologist and she did some testing.

And then she did a PET scan of his brain.

And so that he had Alzheimer's.

And we cried for about three days.

And then once we got over the initial shock, we both wanted to do everything we could to inform people, educate people about this disease.

Al even had a sweatshirt or t shirt made up that said, I have Alzheimer's.

Questions asked me.

And he was very outspoken about talking about the disease, but it did obviously change our lives immensely.

I enrolled AL in trial study at Sanders Brown in Lexington, and we went every month and that examined.

If you're not in the trial study, a regular neurologist, maybe we'll see you once a year.

You might get an MRI, maybe once every three years.

So I felt he was getting really excellent care and we were kept right up to date on what was going on with him.

The hardest part for him was the first stage, the initial mild stage, because he knew that he didn't know and he knew he was going to continue to progress and eventually that would be a death sentence.

For me, it was the second stage or the middle stage that was hardest because that's when he really began to not be able to do things.

I tried way too hard to do everything by myself, and we got to a point where it was just so stressful to me.

I was sleep deprived.

I wasn't able to relax.

I wasn't able to do things with my friends and I ended up having a stroke.

Now I made a full recover from recovery from that stroke, but I knew that I had to make some changes, so I placed him in a facility.

My first reaction is, of course, nobody can care for Alec.

I care.

I've been married to him for 40 years.

You know, they can't care for him like I can.

But after I placed him, I found out they could.

He was safer with them.

They were able to give him activities all day long, which I wasn't able to do.

So I realized that it was a good a move.

But even in a facility, you're still a caregiver.

You know, you go every day and you still have to make sure that they're doing everything that's the best for him.

The grief process is interesting.

If you have somebody that passes away, you have a grief process or a point in time that you're grieving.

With Alzheimer's or other dementia, you grieve every time there's a progression.

Every time they can't do something.

You grieve so that really, by the time they pass away, many times it's just another grief.

In my case, it was actually a bit of a relief just because the stress was over.

He wasn't suffering anymore.

As devastating as Alzheimer's, dementia is there.

There can be life after that.

I've got wonderful memories.

You know, even right up until the day Al passed, when he was in his bed.

I would put on classical music on my phone and I could just see him relax.

It just brings it makes my heart so soft because I can see him relaxing and responding to that.

So, yeah, I've got great memories with him.

You've got to hold on to the memories.

Barbara Story is one of many that we are sharing as part of Katie's next Chapter initiative, which focuses on aging issues and offers a curated collection of programs and resources related to the challenges and rewards of navigating one's golden years.

You can find out more online and on demand at Katie George's next chapter.