Actor Gene Wilder's wife has written an emotional essay where she has opened up about her experience as a caretaker of her husband, who passed away in 2016 following a battle with the disease.
Karen penned an exclusive essay for ABC News, in which she paid tribute to the caretakers who have endured the trails and tribulations of the disease.
"I never pictured myself marrying a movie star. I also never saw myself spending years of my life taking care of one. But I've done both. Love was the reason for the first. Alzheimer's disease, the second," she wrote.
Karen said she realised that something was wrong with the "Willy Wonka" star when he lashed out at their grandson.
"His perception of objects and their distance from him became so faulty that on a bike ride together, he thought we were going to crash into some trees many feet away from us."
Karen said it took an emotional toll on her as she saw her husband grow distant every day.
"I watched his disintegration each moment of each day for six years. One day, I saw him struggle with the ties on his drawstring pants. That night, I took the drawstrings out. Then his wrist was bleeding from the failed effort of trying to take off his watch. I put his watch away," she wrote.
Karen said the disease also nearly destroyed her as it was hard to witness her husband struggle with it.
"There's another particularly cruel aspect to the disease of Alzheimer's, because in addition to destroying piece by piece the one who's stricken with it, it ravages the life of the person caring for its victims. In our case, I was that person," she wrote.
Karen announced that her husband's renowned character of Willy Wonka would be used in the "Pure Imagination Project", which is a new video campaign to bring greater awareness about the disease.
She acknowledged the struggles of caregivers, who are often forgotten.
"It is a strange, sad irony that so often, in the territory of a disease that robs an individual of memory, caregivers are often the forgotten," she wrote.
"Without them, those with Alzheimer's could not get through the day, or die as my husband did with dignity, surrounded by love.
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