Sue Jones sold her house, sold most of what was inside it, and moved into her daughter’s basement, all to keep paying for memory care for her husband Lamar, a veteran who lived with Alzheimer’s and repeatedly wandered from his care facility. One search ended with him found army crawling in the woods. After Lamar died, Sue started a support group for other dementia caregivers, turning her hardest years into a lifeline for people facing the same impossible choices.
Her story reflects a national reality. About one in four U.S. adults now provides ongoing care for a loved one, and unpaid family caregivers deliver roughly $470 billion in free care every year. Memory care costs average $3,849 a month in Georgia, more than $46,000 annually, and dementia patients there spend nearly 83 percent of their monthly income on long-term care. Georgia lawmakers approved $2 million for respite care, but Governor Brian Kemp removed it from the budget.
For the Suncoast, where retirees and snowbirds make up so much of our community, this is not a distant issue. The Alzheimer’s Association and local support groups here help families navigate the same financial and emotional maze every day. Sue’s words cut to the heart of it: “We had dementia. My husband did not have dementia; he and I had dementia, because it takes over your life.” If you are caregiving right now, what would help you most: more funding, more respite, or simply more people who understand?
