Betsy Brooks remembers her father, Charles, as a "razor-sharp" former Marine. The two had their share of arguments, she says. But that all changed late in her father's life, as Betsy recently told her boyfriend, John Grecsek.
Charles was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease when he was 78. Betsy tells John about her relationship with her dad before, and after, the diagnosis.
"We butted heads from the moment we could," Betsy says.
Her father was a Marine — and very proud of it.
"I always say that we learned the Marine Corps Hymn before we knew our ABCs," says Betsy, 54. "He was a meticulous man. He was meticulous about the house and the yard. And he was a perfectionist. His favorite tool was his level."
Betsy grew up on Staten Island, N.Y. Her father had served as a Marine in the 1940s.
"I was just cut from a different cloth," she says. "My mother, she would make these lists of, you know, all my day's crimes. She would save them for my father when he came home from work. And he would turn positively livid. So, the day I turned 18, I got myself my own apartment."
"When did the Alzheimer's start?" John asks.
"It started to become obvious that he wasn't himself. He was a razor-sharp person, but he started not to be able to do simple things," Betsy says. "I remember one time I asked him to make some picture frames for me. He loved to do that sort of stuff."
But her father was no longer the handyman he once was. As Betsy recalls, "My mother called me up and she said, 'Please, do me a favor and don't ask him to make any more. He had such a hard time.' You know, he was so confused."
Charles Brooks was 78 when he was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. And his condition brought a change to his relationship with his daughter.
"All of a sudden, he turned to me — because he knew that if he had every single drawer out from the dresser on the floor, I really couldn't care less," Betsy says. "So he didn't really hide from me."
In fact, the pair spent more time together, Betsy recalls.
"We would sit on the back porch and eat pistachio nuts and share a beer," she says. And I could tell him my secrets. And I got to enjoy all the good that was in him."
Betsy and John spoke about her father shortly after Charles died.
"I love my father tremendously," Betsy says. "And believe me when I tell you, despite the head-butting, all I ever wanted to do was to please him. The past 12 years since he got sick — I wouldn't trade those 12 years for anything. Except, I wish the price to pay for them wasn't so high."
Audio produced forMorning Edition by Nadia Reiman.
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