Sunday, May 1, 2022

Massachusetts mom is honored by her grown kids in picture-perfect portraits

Though Anne Walsh, a mom of four, suffered from Alzheimer's, a touching series of photos captured her with care and kindness

By Deirdre Reilly

1950s-themed senior centers are providing comfort for people with Alzheimer's

One in nine people over the age of 65 have some form of Alzheimer’s, and the disease is only becoming more common, according to the Alzheimer’s Association. There’s no cure for Alzheimer’s, yet some senior daycare centers are using 1950s nostalgia to bring comfort to those who have it.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words — and it can be priceless, actually, if it brings back memories of a loved one's unique spirit and qualities after he or she has left this Earth.

This is what Julie Centrella, a wife, mother of three and small business owner in Reading, Mass., learned when she commissioned portraits of her mother, Anne Walsh, who struggled with dementia in her later years due to Alzheimer’s disease.

"In the beginning, she was good at covering things up, so we didn't really know how bad it was." 

"We had been watching my mother decline, and it was getting worse and worse," Centrella, 52, told Fox News Digital in an interview. 

"In the beginning, she was good at covering things up, so we didn’t really know how bad it was."

Until her symptoms began, Walsh was living a full and productive life.

Anne Walsh emigrated to Boston as a young woman. She married, raised four children and became a grandmother to seven grandchildren.  (Joe Wallace )

Born in 1935 in County Galway, Ireland, into a family that would eventually include 16 children, Anne Walsh emigrated to Boston as a young woman. She married and raised four children, eventually becoming "Nana" to seven grandchildren. She loved fashion and was a very good cook, said Centrella. She was also a person of deep faith

Anne Walsh was widowed for the last 25 years of her life. After her Alzheimer's diagnosis, her daughters moved her from the south shore of Massachusetts to the Boston area, so she could be closer to them. 

"My mom’s speech began to be affected, her sentences were jumbled, and it was getting really hard to even carry on a conversation."

Walsh endured Alzheimer’s for 15 years before she passed away on Dec. 8, 2021, at the age of 86.

Today, an estimated 6.2 million Americans ages 65 and older are living with Alzheimer's dementia (though those numbers could be higher). The numbers could rise to 13.8 million people by 2060, according to the National Institutes of Health.

ALZHEIMER'S IS IMPACTING 6.5 MILLION OLDER AMERICANS

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