life with booyaa

we're big terry pratchett fans in our house. have a bookshelf full of his books. listen to the audiobooks (bbc radio versions are top stuff for convalescing to) and generally have a lot of respect for the author.

it was painful to hear, a few weeks ago, that he has been diagnosed with a rare type of alzheimer's. what has already started to happening to terry is that his brain stops functioning as it used to, sometimes for just a moment, and he loses his usual lucidity. it's a horrible thing for anyone to have to live with. in the early stages you are aware that you're losing it. you can feel your grip on the world slipping away from you. it must be bloody scary.

i've seen standard alzheimer's advance in my auntie. when she was first diagnosed she was already in her seventies and frail, but she was far enough gone that she couldn't remember to take the pills that would keep her lucid enough to remember to take the pills... and then something in her brain decided to journey back through time and she lives now as she did fifty years ago, with a 'baby' on her lap, wondering if her husband will come home from the pub soon and thinking her younger sister is her mother. it's excruciatingly painful to see, though i also acknowledge that she is in a better place now, for her, than she was during the early stages, when having a functioning brain that recognises that a part of it is disintegrating must be terrifying.

and that's why i'm here today, dragging myself away from my juicefeasting buddies, to ask you to go and check out this site. matchitforpratchett.org find out more and do your bit. even if for very selfish reasons, get your credit card out and see if we can't make enough money to get the research wheels turning in time to help terry. see, then the prolific mr pratchett might delight us with another few discworld novels before he puts away his laptop for the last time.

and if you're reading this, terry. i'm so very sorry that this has happened to you. i'm grateful for all the joy you have brought me with your work. and thank you so much for sharing your illness with the world so that people are encouraged to do something to help others. it may help you, but it will certainly help those who follow in your footsteps. oh, and i once made you very uncomfortable in waterloo station, about twelve years ago, by running after you and telling you i thought you were wonderful. sorry about that. but you are. wonderful, that is.

update: the picture is no longer working because terry himself asked that discworld characters not be used as 'advertising' which i find a little odd. i understand the concept of intellectual property but, come on, it's for a good cause... anyway. more info here.