A Meaningful and Ambitious Tribute to My Mother

Statement

A Meaningful and Ambitious Tribute to My Mother

We recently marked the 100th Mother's Day - a national holiday inspired by one remarkable mother in Grafton, West Virginia, and her daughter's simple gesture to keep her memory alive.

Mother's Day in our family is always a special time to celebrate the mothers in our lives, and to remember those who came before them. This year was a perfect celebration with my wife Sharon, who is an incredible and loving mother to our four children, and now a doting grandmother to five beautiful grandchildren.

We were also joined by our daughter, Valerie, who I've watched become an absolutely terrific mother to two dear little girls; and my thoughts were with our daughter-in-law, Emily, who is bringing up three wonderful children with our son, John.

These are strong, successful women, who also just happen to be among the greatest moms I know. And when I think about them, when I watch them with the little ones in our family, I can't help but think of my own mother - and the enormous role she played in my life.

My mother was an overwhelmingly caring and compassionate person. She had a true love for people and family, for the world in which we live, for culture and art. Her life was so full, her interests so varied, and her passions so acute. She had an enthusiasm for life, and her eyes sparkled every day with warmth, wisdom and curiosity.

She was deeply beloved and cherished in our family, just as all mothers are in theirs. And that's why one of the most devastating experiences we've ever faced was losing her to Alzheimer's.

This disease is a plague of extraordinary power. It destroys not just bodies, but minds; it devastates not just people afflicted with the disease, but whole families; it lingers not for weeks, but for years - in her case, for ten years.

The hurt one feels when watching a loved one go through Alzheimer's is beyond words. It affects you to the core, every single day, knowing what they're going through - and that you're powerless to stop it.

Out of love for my mother, and in an effort to prevent another family from going through the pain we felt, my family and I were fortunate to be able to create an institute at West Virginia University to help fight this terrible disease.

The Blanchette Rockefeller Neurosciences Institute (BRNI) was founded in 1999 - to help advance medical and scientific understanding of Alzheimer's, and other diseases of the brain. Today, it's the world's only non-profit institute dedicated exclusively to the study of both human memory and diseases of memory.

It's home to leading neuroscientists, and they're making great progress on new treatments for Alzheimer's. They're also working on the first-ever skin test for diagnosing the disease, which would be an especially critical breakthrough since many cases go undiagnosed for far too long.

And this fall, on September 19, we'll be marking the grand opening of BRNI's new home - a spectacular building on WVU's medical campus where this research will do nothing but grow. With every steel beam and brick placed in memory of those who have already suffered, this building will help to foster the knowledge and imagination of hundreds of people committed to protecting the human mind.

Our dream is for BRNI to help those battling Alzheimer's and other neurological diseases, as well as the families by their sides; and, maybe someday, to prevent others from enduring this pain.

This is the purpose and ambition that inspired me on this Mother's Day - to honor the memory of my mother by making meaningful progress toward ending the hurt these diseases cause.

It was 100 years ago when Anna Jarvis honored her recently-departed mother by passing out white carnations. Her personal gesture of commemoration has spread across the country, and to many parts of the world.

It has truly made a difference.

And that's exactly what I hope BRNI - a tribute to my own mother - will do as well.

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