Is It Alzheimer's?

By Gail Sheehy

Keith and Daphne Wolfard, only in their 50s, were enjoying a blissful second marriage. Daphne was fiercely independent, loving to prove she could reel in game fish bigger than herself. Keith built them a beautiful early-retirement home deep in the tall pines of rural Oregon. He didn't want to acknowledge his wife's creeping dementia.

When Daphne's friends alerted Keith to her abnormal behavior, he made the rounds of doctors. No fewer than three physicians dismissed the idea that she had the dreaded disease, Alzheimer's. The couple relaxed and tried to forget about it.

• Continue reading Gail's journal about her visit with Keith Wolfard