11-year-old seeks to end Alzheimer's one bookmark at a time

Incoming sixth-grader Hannah Parker of West Haverstraw, 11, has big dreams, and a creative vision for helping end Alzheimer’s. Her grandmother, Marie Mildouin-Pacaud, lives with her, and she suffers from Alzheimer’s disease.

At first, Hannah said she did not know how to deal with her grandmother’s illness or how it was affecting her family. “Seeing my grandmother struggle every day really impacted me,” she said.

Then she had an idea. “I’m pretty good at art, so I thought, ‘Why don’t I use my talent to take down Alzheimer’s?’ ” she said. “I like to read, and I love art, which inspired me to create bookmarks for the Alzheimer’s Association.” So far, she has created about 8 designs.

Hannah recalled how she learned her grandmother had Alzheimer’s.

“One day, I came home from church to find that my grandma couldn’t recognize me. At first, I didn’t think anything of it, but she was living with us, so soon I started to notice she was forgetting other things. I asked my mother why grandma seemed to be forgetting so many things.

“I had heard of Alzheimer’s before, but I did not understand what it was, so I asked my mom. I was upset to know that my grandma will only continue to get worse, to think that one day she would not remember anything, not even her own family or how to eat.”

“I chose the name ‘MarkedMagnificent’ for my bookmarks. I made them with the hope that one day there will be a cure, so other children like me are not affected by this illness,” she said.

Hannah’s mother, Francesca Pacaud-Parker, said the idea was all Hannah’s, and that her daughter had wanted to do something for the cause for some time.

“When she was in third grade, she came home and said she wanted to start raising money for Alzheimer’s through her school, and then she had all these ideas how to do so, like baking and artwork,” Pacaud-Parker recalled, noting that at that time the idea never got anywhere because of how busy she and her husband both were.

But Hannah was undeterred.

“Not long ago, she took it upon herself to go online and search the website, and this is how it happened. She wouldn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. So that’s where we are now,” Pacaud-Parker said. “She means business. I felt bad that it took this long, but this year she just wouldn’t stop until she got what she wanted to get done.”

The project is a family effort, with Hannah’s father, Gerald Parker, taking her to Michaels for art supplies, paternal great grandmother, Frances Pratt of Nyack, finding a printer and helping get the bookmarks printed after Hannah designs them.

They plan to have a table to sell the bookmarks at the Nyack Street Fair on Sept. 8.

“After that, we’ll see how things go,” Pacaud-Parker said.

Those interested in ordering a bookmark from Hannah in exchange for a donation to her Longest Day fundraiser can email the family at Katy200@gmail.com.

Pacaud-Parker’s mother, Marie Mildouin-Pacaud, has been living with the family for eight years, ever since she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Pacaud-Parker, a clinical psychologist, was alarmed by changes she noticed in her mother when came to visit from Haiti.

“I remember I picked her up from the airport, and it was odd. The behavior was odd to me that night, and the next day it was still odd. It didn’t even take me a week to schedule an appointment with a doctor,” she said, noting that her mother was having hallucinations and seeing people who weren’t there.

“She would say things to me like, ‘I left my bag outside’ or ‘There’s somebody outside in this car’ -- but there was nobody there. She would wake up in the middle of the night and start rummaging around the house. She would hide things, like the keys. She’d put them in a drawer somewhere and then couldn’t find them,” she recalled.

Pacaud-Parker described her mother as a vibrant, adventurous, strong-minded and hardworking woman who had a long career as a nurse in Haiti. Prior to that, she lived in France and traveled extensively in Europe. The oldest girl in her family, she worked to get all her seven brothers and sisters to the U.S. and Canada.

Now she said her mother seemed like a different person.

“It was not the person I knew as my mother, the personality change and the memory loss. She would argue that she had said something that she had not said.”

“Now she has progressed to the next phase of the illness where she doesn’t even recognize where things are located in the house. She doesn’t remember her room after she leaves it; she doesn’t remember the bathroom. She has incontinence. Not too long ago, she left the house.”

Pacaud-Parker recalled that incident as the scariest day of her life.

“She wandered off -- it was maybe 5 a.m. I usually get up around 5:30 a.m. for work, and a neighbor called and said she saw my mother two blocks away, then tried to contact me and the police because my mother didn’t want to get in the car with her.”

She contacted the Alzheimer’s Association’s 24-hour helpline, where she was put in touch with a Care Consultant, a licensed social worker on the Alzheimer’s Association staff.

“I was really shaken up by the whole thing. She had left before, but not gone far – like maybe to the back yard. This was the first time she left, and I didn’t know where she was. The social worker stayed on the phone with me for 45 minutes. Now we have cameras and other measures on the doors so she can’t open them.”

Pacaud-Parker said her daughter has been a great support for her.

“There are days when I’m really upset if I see something change in my mother’s condition, and Hannah will be like, ‘It’s going to be OK, Mom, she’s just sick. Let me take care of this.’ She’s an amazing little girl, and I actually felt guilty that it took so long for this to happen,” she said of Hannah’s Longest Day fundraiser. “She’s been reading stuff and said this to me, ‘If I could do something now -- if this is something that is hereditary, they could find a cure, and if you do get sick, you’ll be OK.’ She’s an amazing kid, and now she really wants to take this on.”

About the Hudson Valley Chapter

The Hudson Valley Chapter serves families living with dementia in seven counties in New York, including Duchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster, and Westchester. To learn more about the programs and services offered locally, visit alz.org/hudsonvalley.

About the Alzheimer’s Association

The Alzheimer’s Association is the leading voluntary health organization in Alzheimer’s care, support and research. Its mission is to eliminate Alzheimer’s disease through the advancement of research, to provide and enhance care and support for all affected and to reduce the risk of dementia through the promotion of brain health. Its vision is a world without Alzheimer’s. Visit www.alz.org or call 800.272.3900.