Harold Almy

Harold Dewey Almy spent his life playing by the rules. He loved his country. A picture captures him in his Navy uniform as a young man. A white sailor cap covers his dark hair. A wide smile almost merges into the white stripes that stretch across his navy blue collar.

Harold also loved his wife and children. He lived his entire life being a good human being, but Parkinson’s was not good to him. It didn’t play by the rules. It ravaged his body and his mind.

It forced him to separate from his wife of 54 years. The continuing care facility they had spent most of their money to get into before his diagnosis couldn’t care for him because of the Parkinson’s. He ended up in a nursing home. And even that didn’t last. The nursing home required him to leave because the medication the disease required caused behavior problems they did not have the skills or interest in managing.

For someone who thought that doing the right things in life would always lead to the right outcome, it became a tragic end for him and his family. He died a slow and ugly death isolated from everything he loved and confused by the disease that caused this havoc to him and his family.

I wish there had been a PuSH for PD residence for Harold Almy.