BALTIMORE — More than 127,000 Marylanders are living with Alzheimer’s and thousands more are caring for someone they love.
“It really is hard because I don’t even feel like this woman is with me now. The woman I visit today, I see glimpses of her,” said Liz Minkin-Friedman, daughter of a woman living with Alzheimer’s.
She keeps photos of her mom close.
“It is hard for me. I don’t do this often. I don’t let myself miss her because she is still here. Her body is still here,” Liz said.
Liz will be walking in the 2025 Walk to End Alzheimer’s in Baltimore, raising money for research and a cure.
“It really hurts to watch your loved ones suffer. Then halfway through the disease when they are no longer as aware, it really impacts everyone else so much more.”
Her mother lived just a mile away, yet the first alarm sounded when she couldn’t find her way to Liz’s house.
“It was like we kept excusing it away and my mother was a rock and so high functioning and so smart, so well read."
Her mother, Jerri Minkin, recognized the symptoms early. She cared for her own father who lived with the disease.
“She said if this happens to me, I don’t want to deal with it. I don’t want to be a burden. I don’t want to do this to you. Please kill me. And finally, in the early stages I said, all my life you told me this but what do you want me to do?,” Liz said.
Jerri also cared for her partner.
“He was immobile, so she was always his caregiver. We thought her symptoms were caregiver stress,” Liz said.
Then the roles reversed. When her mom was diagnosed with vascular dementia, Liz stepped in.
“I feel like I was doing nothing well at that point. You have to pay the bills, you have to raise your kids, it feels very much like a tsunami,” Liz said. “I was still fooling everybody and holding my head above water, but inside I felt like I was drowning.”
Eventually, Liz made the difficult decision to move her mother into a care home. She visits every day.
“It’s exactly what you imagine. It’s way too much and I feel like people are very unaware of how grueling it is to be the sandwich generation, where you have an aging parent and you have kids you’re still raising,” Liz said. “I couldn’t do it all and people need to realize how devastating this disease is to an entire family.”
To hold on to her mother’s story, she created a photo album full of every milestone and loved one.
“I’m nostalgic and I’m sad because I can’t get this time back,” Liz said.
This year, Liz surpassed her fundraising goal for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s. Her team has raised more than $7,500. The walk is Saturday, November 1, 2025, at The Maryland Zoo in Baltimore.
"Being around other people in the same situation is just so fulfilling and that day is so healing for everybody because it's positive. You would think we'd be crying the whole time, but really we're just joyful," Liz said.
