When Virginia Jones started forgetting little things in the 1970s, her family had no idea what Alzheimer?s disease was or what they could expect to come.
Coping was toughest in the beginning, daughter Ernestine Jolivet Jones said. “We didn?t know what was going on. My mother was the type of person who remembered everything, birthdays, anniversaries. I talked to her three to four times a day.”
“One year, I talked to her on my birthday, and she didn?t say anything. I was upset. I thought she forgot my birthday,” she said.
When her family realized Virginia Jones would need extra care, Ernestine took a year off of work. She and her brothers and sisters, including Sen. Verna Jones, D-Baltimore City, each helped, and each dealt with the disease in different ways.
“As a family, we had to struggle with the care and for my mother,” Ernestine said. “It was very stressful and each family member had to handle it differently.”
Eventually, medicine gave them a name for the disease and the related illness ? vascular dementia ? that claimed their father, Pythias Jones. They turned their mourning into an opportunity to raise money to help others. On Saturday, the Third Annual Pythias A. and Virginia I. Jones African American Community Forum on Memory Loss, at Coppin State University, will help distribute information and connect people with support.
Experts say Alzheimer?s is more prevalent in the black community.
“We are learning that many people are taking care of their loved ones without any help, without any knowledge of the illness,” said Tanwa M. Suma, diversity outreach coordinator for the Alzheimer?s Association Greater Maryland Chapter.
More than 85,000 Marylanders have Alzheimer?s or related dementia, and of those, 25,000 are black, according to the association. Diseases like diabetes and hypertension adversely affect people with Alzheimer?s, and African Americans are more susceptible to these illnesses.
“There isn?t any cure, so we need to education the community about Alzheimer?s,” Suma said.
The forum will take place from 8:15 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. Saturday at Coppin State University?s new dining hall. For information, visit www.alz.org/maryland.
