By Kelly Louiseize
The first president of Cambrian College, John T. Koski, is one of the 1,800 Sudburians who has been diagnosed with Alzheimer?s disease.
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John Koski |
Koski opened Cambrian, Sault and Canadore College in 1967. During his tenure the gym/athletics section was added, and the field house plus the Industrial Training Centre were also opened. Before his retirement in 1988, the last stages of the Barrydowne campus were completed.
Linda Wilson, marketing director for Cambrian College, was hired by Koski in 1984 and remembers him as a leader.
?He was a builder,? Wilson said. ?He was demanding in a very positive way and wanted no less than what he expected of himself. His leadership and guidance were positive.?
Evelyn Koski, his wife, has lent the Koski name to the Alzheimer Society in hopes of educating people about the disease.
?We know that is what John would want,? she said.
He knew years before the formal confirmation in 1994 something wasn?t quite right. His wife recalls how they found out.
?John was the one who made the appointment with the family doctor, who in turn scheduled a time for him to meet with a neurologist,? she said. ?He underwent some testing and then came home and said the doctor wanted to talk to me too. Our daughter came with us, and on that visit...it was confirmed.?
As the disease became more prevalent, Evelyn accepted more responsibility.
?I couldn?t figure out how to tell him that I should take care of the bank accounts,? she said.
Now living in Toronto, she came to Sudbury to attend an Alzheimer's support group where she met with other people who have gone through similar situations.
She learned an Alzheimer's patient usually refuses change initially.
?As a caretaker, you have to find ways of approaching subjects from different angles,? she said.
Evelyn had to approach her husband about his car licence since he had several accidents and was considered a danger on the road.
?I was able to persuade him to stop driving,? she said. ?I didn?t wait for a doctor to revoke his licence. He voluntarily gave up driving, and I sold his car without a great deal of stress on him. He even congratulated me on the price I got.?
That was when he was in the early stages of the disease, now, snippets of the ?old John? surface only occasionally, according to his wife.
?He was talking incoherently about books and pictures. Then he suddenly looked up at me and said, ?Where?s your hat?? For the people who don?t know me, I like hats, so that came as quite a surprise.?
The hardest time for Evelyn came when she had to put her husband into a nursing home in Toronto.
?That was very, very difficult. I was at a complete stage of exhaustion. I spent about six months researching nursing homes and had gone back to some more than once. That was the time I needed certain family and friends the most.?
Today, Evelyn marks her days carefully and continues to have long-range plans for her family. It helps everyone cope with Alzheimer?s more constructively.
?You have to be caring day by day, and make sure he has enough stimuli, physical and mental exercise,? she said. ?Long-range planning is necessary for a loved one because you don?t want to find yourself in an emergency situation. Otherwise, the Alzheimer patient will be put in a crisis placement and that is the absolute worst kind of placement.?
The nursing home is four blocks from where she lives and it ?looks like a palace.? It has rooms for families to spend time with their loved ones, either privately or in the main rooms.
?John likes it there,? she said. ?He appreciates the paintings, the furnishings and surroundings. He still looks at books, although we don?t know what he is getting out of them. He likes talking one-on-one, but is not always coherent. He still uses his hands when trying to communicate, but finds it difficult when other conversations are taking place simultaneously. You can see the brain fatigue.?
Evelyn visits her husband three times a week and encourages friends and extended family to stay in touch.
Apart from his usual guests, nursery school children visit the nursing home weekly to have lunch.
?He just loves any children who show up. The nurses tell me he reacts very well with the children.?
John Koski, like many others who have been afflicted with Alzheimer disease, requires a caretaker. It is difficult for him to move.
?Besides ourselves, he has a private-nurse companion who helps take him on walks,? she said. ?He needs to hold someone?s hand because he drags his feet and stumbles into furniture.?
Evelyn has started new holiday traditions.
?For Christmas or birthdays, we used to take him out for a day or night, but now he seems more secure within the nursing home. So now the family comes into the nursing home. It?s very important to still have those family times.?
Through these difficult times, Evelyn has worked to stay strong and maintain a sense of humour.
?Sometimes I?m sitting on one of these beautiful lounges and then John will get restless and say, ?All right what?s the program? and I?ll say, ?It?s us John, we?re the program,?? she laughs. ?I?m not laughing at him, but as a caretaker, you must be willing to see the humour.?
Evelyn said she couldn?t have managed without the support of friends and family.
?We have the full support of our adult children who live here in Toronto. We?re lucky and fortunate to have family that gets along well together. Our friends in Sudbury are most important to us as well as the friends here.?
Evelyn has a degree in social work and has developed many close friends who help her through the trying times. She believes her profession has helped her deal with Alzheimer?s in the family.
?I was always independent,? she said.
?My own career allowed me to travel abroad and seek out my own interests. It helped me to find my way in having to live on my own.?
An estimated one in 13 people over the age of 65 currently has Alzheimer?s disease.
By 2011, the Alzheimer Society of Canada predicts there will be 111,600 new cases of dementia, of which 64 per cent will be diagnosed as Alzheimer?s.
The number of people over the age of 65 will double in Sudbury by the year 2016.
Health-care professionals here predict there will be an increase in dementia cases of 150 per cent between 1992 and 2021.
The Alzheimer Society of Sudbury/Manitoulin is in the process of raising $2.1 million to build a 10,500-square foot renovation project in a section of Pioneer Manor, which is located on 960 Notre Dame Ave.
The facilities, which are to open in 2004, will accommodate adult day programs, counselling facilities, a resource library and an overnight respite program.
Kelly Louiseize is a journalism student at Cambrian College. She will be entering her second-year this September. This article appeared originally in the Cambrian Shield.
