22-year-old to run Boston Marathon for mom with Alzheimer’s

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name: Ella (Mary Elizabeth) Wright
Age: 22
City: Boston

I’m running the Boston Marathon with the Alzheimer’s Association for my mom.

I have a hard time thinking of a time when I didn’t know what it was like to have Alzheimer’s disease. At the age of 22, I lost my grandfather, great uncle, and aunt to various forms of Alzheimer’s and dementia. Their battles and absences shaped me, but none were as calm and persistent as my mother’s diagnosis with early-onset Alzheimer’s.

My mother was diagnosed in her 40s when I was a senior in high school. I don’t know if there is an age when my siblings and I are ready to take care of our mother after she fades away, or a moment when my father is ready to lose his partner, or a day when I’m ready to lose my best friend.

In many ways, I feel robbed. I was robbed of my ability to call my mom after my first breakup and when I got my dream job. I think about how I will deprive my future children of knowing it, and it breaks my heart. Grieving for someone who is still alive is a very strange kind of pain. I can sit with my mother, hold her hand, and hear her voice sometimes, but the woman who raised me feels so far away. I miss her.

My mom went to college in Boston, and it was always her dream to run the Boston Marathon. I’m running to advocate for caregivers and spread awareness. To increase funding for research so that one day my family’s genetics will not be intertwined with the loss of Alzheimer’s disease. To support other affected families. Selfishly, I’m participating in this marathon because it was, and probably still is, her dream.

Editor’s Note: This entry may have been lightly edited for clarity or grammar.

Kelly Chan

Content Producer

Kelly Chan is a content producer at Boston.com. She designs multimedia content on the website and across social media platforms, and experiments with new ways to engage readers.