Allen & Annette Stone

Annette was 21 years old when the young medical student, Allen Stone, asked her on a date. She laughed all night from his sense of humor. She came home and told her mother, “I’m going to marry that man.” That deep love and affection for Allen is stronger than ever today, even during what many consider to be one of the most difficult, complicated, and heart-wrenching diseases there is - Alzheimer’s.

Our team today filmed a very emotional and meaningful segment for our film, “On the Front Lines of Alzheimer’s & Dementia.” Annette was kind enough to let us into her home to tell us the love story of her and her husband, Allen Stone, who has late stage Alzheimer’s.

Allen is a veteran who served as a doctor in Vietnam at a children’s hospital in Da Nang. While there, Allen and thousands of other military personnel would have been exposed to the deadly, Agent Orange, that was used as a defoliate to kill deep brush. Like so many of our veterans, Allen was diagnosed with prostate cancer in his early fifties. Now in his golden years of life and at the end stages of Alzheimer’s, we have to question whether a man who lived a gold standard of healthy lifestyle and has no genetic proneness to dementia with several of his family members living healthy well into their 90’s, was stricken with Alzheimer’s due to contact with Agent Orange. Annette believes this to her core.

This subject of discussion is so important as we watch our baby boomer generation, many of whom are Vietnam veterans, now head down the late stage years of their lives.

In telling their story, Annette’s grace and strength shed light on the effects that Alzheimer’s has not only on the patient, but on family as well. With the help of David, Allen’s caregiver, Annette takes care of Allen in their home and cherishes their time spent together, even in these late stages. “He’s still here and he still holds my hand. I know he knows how much I love him. Alzheimer’s couldn’t take that away from us.”

We’re so thankful to the Stone Family for letting us into their home. You can learn how you can support this production by going here:
http://ontodaysfrontlines.com/alzheimers/ and clicking on, “Supporting This Film.”