Fairmont woman runs to remember grandfather before Alzheimer's with June 8 5K Run/Walk

May 21—FAIRMONT — Since she was little, Brenna Wilson has always seen her grandfather, Roger Flowers, be a constant presence in the community.

A Vietnam War veteran, Flowers would drive other vets who had no transportation to their VA appointments. He volunteered at the Italian Heritage Festival in Clarksburg.

Wilson danced when she was younger, and remembers her grandfather building props for her recitals of his own accord. No one had to ask for help, he just gave it.

Wilson started playing soccer in Kindergarten.

"He built me little soccer nets so I could practice in the yard," Wilson, 19, said. "He bought me soccer balls, he was all for it. He went to every single one of my high school games, all of my travel games. He was literally like a grandfather to every girl on that team."

She also recalled her grandfather building her a zipline in her backyard, picnics at the water tower and camping in the backyard.

Roughly five years ago Alzheimer's began to steal Flowers' zest for life from him.

In honor of her grandfather, Wilson organized the Run to Remember along with her boyfriend, Hunter Taylor. It's a 5K Walk/Run set for June 8 which Wilson hopes will raise donations and awareness about the disease. Donations will go toward the nonprofit Alzheimer's Association.

The run will start at 11 a.m. at the MCTrail Rail Trail located inside Prickett's Fort State Park.

Wilson is a student at West Virginia University, studying physiology. Flowers lives in Clarksburg.

Flowers is now in the middle stages of the disease, and as it progresses, communication becomes more and more difficult. What began as an inability to remember commonly forgotten items such as car keys or wallets turned into a distressing failure to recall the word for cat or hospital.

"I go out to my grandparents house once a month, maybe once every two months," Wilson said. "When I do it's always a shock, you don't expect it to get better but you don't expect it to get worse. You can notice from Christmas and then to Easter how much worse it's gotten."

Wilson said her grandfather still remembers her, but for how much longer, she cannot say. She said another difficult thing watching the disease develop is how isolated her grandfather has become. He used to be much more social, approaching people at restaurants to ask them how their food was.

During holidays he'd start conversations with anyone. Now he isolates himself in the garage and pulls away.

Taylor, Wilson's boyfriend, said Alzheimer's also runs in his family. His great grandfather died of Alzheimer's. Taylor also had the privilege of meeting Flowers before the disease took hold.

"The first time I met him he was a very talkative, very social guy," Taylor said. "That was almost five years ago, back when he was still driving. But when I see him now, he's a lot quieter."

Taylor, 22, now does whatever he can to support Wilson, including helping her organize the race. This is the first time the race will be held, Taylor hopes the race grows in coming years. He hopes it will raises awareness around what kind of impact Alzheimer's can have on loved ones and spark a passion to make change.

Sherri Reed is the director of the West Virginia Veterans Nursing Facility, which includes a memory care unit. With a staff that is well trained in providing Alzheimer's care, Reed said hours and hours of dementia training are required to be qualified. Part of that is keeping up best practices in the field of dementia as they evolve.

"It's a difficult situation," Reed said. "There's different types of dementia and it's extremely hard on families. To watch their loved ones go through that deterioration. We hold a support group here for spouses or anybody in the family that would want to discuss dementia or just talk about their loved one and what they're going through."

Reed said races like the one Wilson is organizing are important because the money raised helps fund research that goes into finding new ways to combat dementia and hopefully someday, cure it. Dementia and related diseases are horrible because patients become trapped in their own bodies, unable to express themselves anymore, she said.

As Alzheimer's continues to take its hold on Flowers, Wilson has become the custodian of her grandfather's memories. It's a difficult reality for her to face, up until recently she's been avoiding it. However, as her grandfather becomes unrecognizable she's learned to remember him as he was.

"I just try to remind myself of all the amazing things that happened throughout my childhood," she said. "Because I'm the one who has those memories. Now, he doesn't. I'm the only one who can remember playing pirates on boats. And things like that."

Reach Esteban at [email protected]