Gene Wilder‘s widow, Karen Wilder, has written an emotional essay detailing the late actor’s struggle with Alzheimer’s disease.
While caring for Gene, Karen reached out to the Alzheimer’s Association, learning that one in three seniors dies with Alzheimer’s or another dementia.
“Unlike other diagnoses, even some cancers, this one offers not even a shred of hope for survival,” she writes.
In the essay, Karen details how they gradually realised Gene was suffering from Alzheimer’s, beginning when the actor would act uncharacteristically and forget the names of his own movies.