For Bob – WEGO Health

Robert, normally Bob, DeMarco handed away not long ago – and we have all misplaced a true patient chief, a tireless advocate, researcher, and supporter for Alzheimer’s caregivers, a gifted writer, and an inexhaustible speaker.

Bob hardly ever sought awards or recognition for his Alzheimer’s get the job done, but his legions of followers designed absolutely sure his devotion and significantly-achieving influence ended up discovered. He gained many WEGO Health Awards with his Alzheimer’s Examining Area blog site, Facebook site, and e mail group. Purely by phrase of mouth and the ability of his amazing content, he introduced hope, light and a trove of useful suggestions to hundreds of thousands.
I am a single of the luckiest of the tens of millions – Bob lived in my hometown of Delray Seaside, Florida. He moved to Delray Seashore in 2003, leaving behind a powerhouse economical expert services vocation to grow to be Alzheimer’s caregiver for his mom Dottie. I met him immediately after Dottie had passed, but he was nonetheless fiercely committed to the Alzheimer’s group, and I questioned him to have a beer with me.

That very first beer with each other lasted three hours. Bob’s relentless curiosity and strength were infectious – our prolonged talks ricocheted from look for motor science to Delray politics to Alzheimer’s investigate and scientific trials to his profession in New York. That first time and every single time after, we would communicate about Dottie also how he had discovered so a lot of strategies to realize “Dottie’s World” as he identified as it, and to make her everyday living
with Alzheimer’s not just harmless but fulfilling and content and exciting.
Bob handed that knowledge, that irreplaceable enjoy, and difficult-won practical experience, together to everyone dealing with Alzheimer’s and to individuals of us at Wellbeing Union WEGO who had the possibility to know him personally.
I spoke to him just a day before he handed, and his only regret was that he hadn’t done more than enough – that if he’d done far more to fight his most cancers, he could have carried out a lot more for us all. We talked about that, and I did the most effective I could to explain to him that Bob’s World truly had built the environment a much better position.
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Bob was a phenomenal Alzheimer’s affected individual chief and a collaborative member of (legacy) WEGO Wellness. The winner of the 2016 WEGO Health Awards Very best In Demonstrate: Website, Bob held webinars and are living situations for individual leaders to study from his patient chief experience. You can look at a single of his earlier webinars in this article.