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PITTSBURG —
Big Al picked on the wrong person when it attacked Libby Embry, retired Abilene, Texas school teacher.
Instead of meekly accepting her role as a victim, Embry has struck back at the mind-stealing disease, lashing out with her words to help others hang onto their lives. Along the way, she has helped raise millions of dollars that she hopes will fund research that will develop a cure for Alzheimer’s.
Born and raised in Fort Scott, Embry and husband Jerry returned recently and during that visit shared the story of her vendetta against Big Al. It started many years ago as she watched her father’s 15-year battle with the disease.
She was only in her 50s when she began to notice the first signs of early onset Alzheimer’s.
“It just got to be very difficult doing things I’d been doing for years,” Embry said.
She missed a meeting that she had attended every day at the same time for years, and began to lose her way going to familiar places such as the grocery store and her hair salon.
At that time she was an English department head at an Abilene middle school and also tutored high school and college students. Her problems began affecting her work performance.
“Everybody covered for me at work,” Embry said. “As I was telling them I couldn’t do it any more, they were saying, ‘Yes, you can’.”
She retired from teaching, got a part-time job at a dress shop just to have something to do, and hoped that the reduced stress would help her get everything back together.
It didn’t, and finally Embry couldn’t keep it all to herself any longer.
“I told my husband Jerry some things, and we went to the doctor,” she said.
Embry had some hope that she might have a brain tumor, even prayed that it would just be a tumor. Instead, at 59, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
“I laid down and cried for two weeks,” she said. “Then I thought, am I going to just let Big Al come and get me? I got up and said that I’m going to fight like nobody has ever fought before.”
Her diagnosis came nearly five years ago, and she’s still fighting, still speaking clearly and confidently.
“I started speaking at churches, civic groups and national organizations for a year,” Embry said. “For me it’s been the key. I’m a very focused person and this gives me a focus to go on living.”
Big Al picked on the wrong person when it attacked Libby Embry, retired Abilene, Texas school teacher.
Instead of meekly accepting her role as a victim, Embry has struck back at the mind-stealing disease, lashing out with her words to help others hang onto their lives. Along the way, she has helped raise millions of dollars that she hopes will fund research that will develop a cure for Alzheimer’s.
Born and raised in Fort Scott, Embry and husband Jerry returned recently and during that visit shared the story of her vendetta against Big Al. It started many years ago as she watched her father’s 15-year battle with the disease.
She was only in her 50s when she began to notice the first signs of early onset Alzheimer’s.
“It just got to be very difficult doing things I’d been doing for years,” Embry said.
She missed a meeting that she had attended every day at the same time for years, and began to lose her way going to familiar places such as the grocery store and her hair salon.
At that time she was an English department head at an Abilene middle school and also tutored high school and college students. Her problems began affecting her work performance.
“Everybody covered for me at work,” Embry said. “As I was telling them I couldn’t do it any more, they were saying, ‘Yes, you can’.”
She retired from teaching, got a part-time job at a dress shop just to have something to do, and hoped that the reduced stress would help her get everything back together.
It didn’t, and finally Embry couldn’t keep it all to herself any longer.
“I told my husband Jerry some things, and we went to the doctor,” she said.
Embry had some hope that she might have a brain tumor, even prayed that it would just be a tumor. Instead, at 59, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.
“I laid down and cried for two weeks,” she said. “Then I thought, am I going to just let Big Al come and get me? I got up and said that I’m going to fight like nobody has ever fought before.”
Her diagnosis came nearly five years ago, and she’s still fighting, still speaking clearly and confidently.
“I started speaking at churches, civic groups and national organizations for a year,” Embry said. “For me it’s been the key. I’m a very focused person and this gives me a focus to go on living.”
She advises her fellow Alzheimer’s patients to “make up your minds, stay focused and stay busy.”
Medications can also help slow the progress of the disease, at least for some persons, and Embry has said that she felt like somebody had removed a bag of cotton balls from her head after she started taking medication.
She said that the medication needs to be started as quickly as possible, which means that those with Alzheimer’s need to be diagnosed early.
“Every day you lose is a day that you cannot get back,” she said.
Embry still has her struggles, especially when she is under stress or tired.
“The other day I was in the grocery store and couldn’t remember why I went there,” she said. “I went to my car, cried, then I went home.”
Embry has told her story to Congress in a bid to get more federal money for Alzheimer’s research.
“When I go to Congress, I don’t ask that they give us more money than anybody else,” she said. “All I ask for is equitable, that they give us the same amount they give other diseases.”
Embry was also largely responsible for scoring $1 million for the Alzheimer’s Association from TJX Companies Inc., parent company of clothing retailer T.J. Maxx.
“They called me from Chicago and said that T.J. Maxx wanted me to come and talk to them,” Embry said. “I kept begging everybody, ‘What should I say?’ and nobody could tell me what to say. I was a wreck. I was on my knees praying, ‘Dear God, what do I say?’”
She spoke to five CEOs at TJX headquarters near Boston, and asked them to be her heroes, and reports that they were moved to tears.
“They said, ‘You’re adopted,’ and gave me a gift certificate,” Embry said. “I said that I didn’t have any place to spend it because we didn’t have a T.J. Maxx in Abilene, so they said, ‘Oh, we need to build you one’.”
In November 2011, Embry cut the ribbon for the grand opening of a T.J. Maxx in Abilene.
She is very active in Alzheimer’s Association activities in Abilene, and had hoped to speak at the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, scheduled May 19 at Immigrant Park in Pittsburg. She had planned to give a tribute to her longtime friend and Fort Scott High School classmate Cheryl Metcalf, who died Dec. 30 from Alzheimer’s.
Unable to be present, she and her husband have recruited fellow class of 1966 members to participate in the walk, including Delbert “Dub” Metcalf, Cheryl Metcalf’s husband, Jim Covey, Linda Noll, Cathy Thomas, Debbie Sailors and Barbara Wood.
Registration will be at 9:30 a.m. May 19, according to Lynette Emmerson, who has co-chaired the walk for many years. The walk will begin at 10 a.m.
“We’re going to have some new things this year,” she said. “One will be yard flower mementos that people can decorate before the walk starts and take home with them. We’ll have a big silent auction, including some fitness equipment that Delbert Metcalf is donating.”
Dalton Windsor will serve as master of ceremonies and sing, and Freddy’s Frozen Custard will have free frozen custard.
“There will be Alzheimer’s facts posted on windows of businesses along the walk route, and participants can fill out a questionnaire and be entered for a drawing.” Emmerson said. “We’ll also have some other prizes, a hot dog meal and face painting for the children.”
Registrations for the walk may be made at www.alz.org/kansascity/southeastkansas walk, but this isn’t required.
“A lot of people just show up and walk,” Emmerson said.
Anyone needing additional information about the Walk to End Alzheimer’s may call Emmerson at 620-757-9955 or Susie Sexton at Sunset Manor, 231-7340.
