Overlake student’s family experience leads to raising awareness about Alzheimer’s

Published 12:00 pm Friday, March 27, 2015

Cassie Moore was in eighth grade when her mother Lori Moore began getting forgetful.

Lori would forget to pick Cassie up from school, she would forget to bring home dinner and would often misplace her keys. These little moments began happening more and more frequently, but Cassie did not realize how forgetful her mother had become until she got her driver’s license.

Once The Overlake School senior began driving and organizing her life herself, she saw how much was really slipping away from her mother. Cassie, a Bellevue resident, said at the time, she felt bad about what was happening to her mother and didn’t want to point out her mistakes.

But then Lori and her boyfriend at the time went on vacation and when they returned, he told Cassie — a sophomore at the time — that he couldn’t be Lori’s caregiver.

After this, Lori went to see a doctor and in February 2013, she was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease.

“It wasn’t super difficult,” Cassie said about learning of her mother’s diagnosis.

Cassie — the youngest of three daughters and the only still living at home at the time — explained that they had already realized what was happening to her mother. She said it was more difficult for her mother to admit what was happening. Cassie said Lori, who is 54 years old, has always been very strong and organized.

“She was so afraid,” Cassie said about her mother, adding that Lori is still not aware that she has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.

FAMILY SUPPORT

In September of 2013, Cassie’s aunt from Boston (Lori’s younger sister) Carol Archambault moved in with them to help take care of Lori.

“I will do everything I can to help her,” Archambault said about learning of her sister’s disease. “I took her to neurologists in Florida and Boston, getting second opinions and more information about how to manage this disease, but unfortunately not curing her.”

For Cassie, having her aunt move in with them was “incredibly relieving.” She said before this, she would worry about her mother while she was at school, but now that Archambault was home with Lori, it was one less thing to stress about.

Archambault said her niece never shared her concerns about Lori, but once Archambault moved in, Cassie began sharing what has been happening.

“I think she didn’t want to believe there was a problem, so she just stepped in and took care of things,” Archambault said. “Cassie is such an amazing, strong, loving, smart young woman. I have thoroughly enjoyed being present during her last two years of high school. I get to see her basketball and lacrosse games, meet her friends and see her thrive.”

Cassie said her aunt was her mother’s caregiver until this year as Lori has moved to an assisted-living facility in Seattle. Lori began losing her balance and no longer recognized her own reflection and it just became too dangerous for her to stay home, Cassie said.

“She just had to be watched,” the teen said.

Cassie said Lori believes she is at Aegis on Madison because she works there. She said Lori has her own name tag and the staff there even hold “meetings” with her twice a week.

“She feels like she has a purpose,” Cassie said.

She added that having her mother move into the facility was difficult because she no longer sees her after school. In addition, Cassie said she couldn’t be there the day her mother moved because it was too hard on her.

“I didn’t think I could deal with it,” she said.

Archambault said the decision for her to move to Bellevue to take care of Lori was a family decision. She said her children — who are now 24 and 19 — wanted her to be there to support Cassie and it was actually her husband who first suggested the move.

“My husband is the most unselfish man and has fully supported me helping Lori,” Archambault said.

RAISING AWARENESS

Archambault said now she and Cassie are on a mission to raise awareness of young onset Alzheimer’s disease. Last year, they created Lori’s 12th Man Team and participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s event.

“We raised over $15,000 and came in third place for top fundraisers,” Archambault said, adding that they have already registered to participate in this year’s walk, which will be Aug. 29.

Another way they raised awareness was through and Alzheimer’s awareness night at a basketball game on Feb. 3 at Overlake.

Cassie, who is the starting guard for the girls basketball team, said they hold a cancer-awareness night and so she asked if they could do the same for Alzheimer’s.

Dennis Black, head coach for Overlake’s girls basketball team, said when Cassie approached him, he thought, “why not?”

“I was for it,” he said, adding that he would like to continue what Cassie started and hold an Alzheimer’s awareness game night in the future.

Cassie said for the event, they had a suggested a donation bowl and sold raffle tickets. The night raised about $530, which they donated to the Alzheimer’s Association.

“That was a really emotional night for me,” she said about the support she received from the community.