Glen Campbell has been a hero of mine through many decades. Why, he even toured with my beloved Beach Boys when Brian Wilson decided to stay at home in the 1960s.
For me, his searing version of Jimmy Webb’s ‘Wichita Lineman’ remains a high point in recorded music. For others, he was the ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’.
It is so sad that he has been struck down by Alzeimer’s disease.
I am lucky that I have not come across the most cruel of diseases in my family, save my late stepfather’s late onset Alzeimers after he had suffered with Parkinsons, yet another awful affliction. I was with him when he died but in reality his life had ended some years before. I am not sure he knew who I was in his final days. His passing was a blessing. I won’t describe his final indignities – he won’t have known what was going on and that is a good thing, I promise you – but you would not wish them on your worst enemy.
I almost went to see Glen Campbell on his farewell tour in 2012 but the show in Bristol was sold out before I could get a ticket. Loads of bands and artists bill their tours as ‘farewell’ and ‘final’ only to bounce back a few years later, but there was no chance Glen would be coming back.
When he toured, he was in stage two of his disease. He sang with an auto cue, his setlist was not very long, certainly less than an hour, he occasionally would re-start a song he had just finished, he forgot the names in his band. But boy, he could sing and he certainly could play.
Two years on and he is in stage six of the seven stages, so he’s in a bad way. He’s in a care home requiring 24 hour attention. And yet, he can still play guitar like the world class musician he was.
Now comes a movie about his life with Alzeimers.
‘Glen Campbell: I’ll be me’ is the story of his fight from beginning to end. It features a stellar cast including Bill Clinton, Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney. The biggest star is Campbell himself. It was an incredible decision by Campbell and his family to go public with the diagnosis and share his fight with the world. I am not sure I want to watch this tragic story but I may have to force myself for the greater good because Alzeimers is one of the diseases of our lifetimes.
And as I was writing this, Sir Ian Botham appeared on my television talking about his father’s downward spiral suffering from the same disease and how he could no longer face seeing him. Botham added that people should not judge his decision until they had been there. I would go further to anyone criticising him: mind your own business. In a similar situation, how do we know how we would react? Seeing my relatives sick and distressed near the end of their lives was heartbreaking. It hurt like hell and my memories of them are skewed as a result. I don’t always remember the good times because the bad ones were so bad.
Well done to Glen Campbell for sharing his illness with the world, for reminding us how vile it is and how science must keep striving to find an answer. Well done to Sir Ian Botham for his honesty in the face of true family adversity.
It’s a ticking time bomb that wrecks the lives of the sufferers and often those who surround them and it certainly blights the memories of those who can still remember.
1 comment
A very poignant piece Rick.
My Mother was diagnosed with this most awful of diseases and I became a full time carer to both my parents from 1995 until they died in 2009 and 2013. I feel many do not talk about it and that is very much a sign of the times we live in. I suffer from chronic disease but the sad truth is that, until you get it, you never get it.
I have no problem in telling anyone that I was a true Mummy’s boy and so I was able to talk with and share so much with her as a grew up into adulthood. The disease progresses in such a manner that it is very easy to think it is just the effects of age, that is not until the final stages. I think it is very important for ALL of us to make wills and to pass your wishes onto those you can trust to carry them out. I have witnessed families arguing in front of their afflicted family member because there has been no provision for this. It is too late when the person is no longer able to make their own decisions, while in their right mind would mind.
I don’t mind telling you that this disease terrifies me, having seen it up close & personal and in being the care giver.
When she entered the final stage, she had a stroke which then robbed her of her right hand side and the ability to even swallow. I was helpless to do anything and it scared me to see her in such an awful condition. What angered me most was knowing that we do not allow our pets to suffer such indignity and suffering.
This country needs to lobby parliament to bring laws in so that we can choose to end our lives before this level of suffering is reached. Having been through it, I can honestly say that, had I the opportunity, I would have put mum out of the miserable existence she was suffering. I still wake up in sweats when I think back to seeing those pleading eyes, it is the most gut wrenching and awful thing I have ever been involved in.
This really needs being brought out fully into the open so that people can hopefully plan for such an eventuality.
I think Glen Campbell is doing a great thing, as it Terry Pratchett, in going public.
Thank you for writing about this.
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