WE WOULD LIKE TO INTRODUCE YOU TO TOM AND MARION RICCI - - A PHENOMENAL LOVE STORY

As you know each month we tell you a wonderful heartwarming story about a phenomenal patient who did not give up on life after a big accident, injury or diagnosis that could have been earthshaking to most people. This month we decided instead to tell the heartwarming story, but from the viewpoint of the spouse of the patient. The partner who waits at home keeping everything running and in order , without the companionship of the partner who is in the hospital. And as we've heard in the case of ALZHEIMERS Disease sometimes the patient can not even know who their own spouse is when they come to the hospital to see them.

Please meet our friend Marion Ricci, a very beautiful white-haired lady of (85 years) with lovely blue eyes and a melodic soft voice. Marion met her husband Tom Ricci twenty five years ago when she was a widow living in San Clemente California. A young lady that Marion knew suggested that Marion fly with her to Sky Harbor airport in Phoenix, Arizona to meet her uncle Thomas Ricci( 87) a widower who was lonely and looking for companionship; someone to share his life with. After much coxing she decided to go with the friend to Phoenix just to meet the uncle, but their plane was very late arriving at John Wayne to get them. When they finally arrived in Arizona they were surprised to find Thomas Ricci was still there. He'd been waiting three to four hours, but still was in a very good mood. The three of them went out to eat All of them enjoyed themselves easily at the meal. So it was no surprise that Tom asked Marion to keep seeing him on a more permanent basis. At first, Marion declined but Thomas would not take "no" for an answer. He told Marion that he was very much alone and that he was falling in love with her. They eventually married and bought a home near Marion's business in Orange County, California. Years later they decided to move up north to the South Bay coastal area of Los Angeles county. During the time they were moving into a new home and closing out the house in Orange County, Thomas first had a stroke, then he was diagnosed with diabetes and, if that wasn't enough, then ALZHEIMERS. All this was after twenty-five very happy years together. That of course left Marion alone to handle all of the details of selling and closing the escrow on their Orange County home and moving into their new house.

Marion told us that even though she'd reached what she thought was complete independence after meeting Tom he gave her a new meaning to life, as she'd never met such a considerate, fun loving man before. The twenty-five years that they were married were filled with laughter, travel and simply good times!

Now when Mildred goes to the hospital to see Tom and he asks her about their house in Pennsylvania (where he had lived as a young man, but that was years before they had even met.), she knows, of course that it is the Alzheimer dementia distorting his memory.