Alzheimer’s is not forgetfulness. It is not trying to remember where you put your glasses or when your doctor’s appointment is. Alzheimer’s is not when a thought you were having just disappears, never to return, or when you’re driving down the road and realize you don’t know where you’re going or how to get back home, or even where home is.

Alzheimer’s is not memory loss in any way. It’s a disease. A disease that kills the brain, bit by bit, until you die. Memory loss is a result of the disease, but it’s emphatically not the disease itself.

That’s what Gloucester resident Don Talbott, who at age 52 has been caught in the grip of Alzheimer’s for over a decade, wants people to know. He was speaking during a get-together with other victims of Alzheimer’s at the local office of the Alzheimer’s Association on Lewis Avenue in Gloucester. The support group meets there monthly. Plans are currently underway for the ...