Walking for Her Grandmother

Losing a loved one is a terrible trial. Seeing a loved one slowly slip away is another experience entirely.

"It's just mind blowing. It has been about ten years that she has had it," said Ida Daley of her 85 year-old grandmother Ida Mambro who has Alzheimer's. "It is one of the hardest things to watch someone who helped take care of me and now the tables are turned. We're her caregivers and it's almost like turning into an infant. It is heartbreaking."

Daley will be participating Saturday in the Walk to End Alheimer's in honor of her grandmother. Additional health complications have forced her grandmother into full-time care and pushed Daley to take action.

"She can't do the things she want to do right now. She has to stay in care," said Daley. "If she can't do those things for herself at least I can do them for her and be that strength for her."

Daley's grandparents were like another set of parents; taking care of Daley and her siblings while her mother worked, she said.

"I have memories of her teaching me to tie my shoes and teaching me so many amazing things. I feel so lucky to have had her there," she said of her grandmother.

Daley will be participating under the team name of Walk for Nonna Ida.

"She is still the same person to me. Just because she was given this God awful disease doesn't mean she is someone different," said Daley.