Did anyone else watch the documentary Sunday night about Glen Campbell? It was both heartbreaking and uplifting at the same time. The documentary “I’ll be Me” features Campbell’s fight with Alzheimer’s disease. Despite the diagnoses, he toured for some time until finally, it was painfully obviously, that he couldn’t continue.

The film outlined his good days and the enviable bad ones. It showed crowds cheering him on despite mistakes and his family working to keep him happy. What really struck me was the power of music. Even when it seemed he was having a bad day before the concert, somehow, the ability to play and perform was still there. Near the end of the tour that, sadly,  diminished as well. During each concert he would do this bit with his daughter, Ashley, where they mimicked each other – he on the guitar, she on the banjo.  Really fantastic stuff. She noted that as the disease progressed, it was harder and harder for him to follow her. Must be so hard to see him slip each day.

You see videos online all the time of people who seem lost in their thoughts with dementia come to life when a familiar song is played. What is it about music that is so deep in our memory and so powerful that upon hearing it, we come alive? Campbell’s doctor noted that it appeared that the longer he was playing and singing, the better his mind was. Unfortunately, Alzheimer’s always wins.

5.3 million Americans have Alzheimer’s today. 200,000 of those are below the age of 65 and suffer from early-onset Alzheimer’s. Two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients are women. An estimated that 250,000 children and young adults between ages 8 and 18 provide help to someone with Alzheimer’s disease or another dementia.Those are sobering facts.

At the end of the documentary, Campbell sang his last song “I’m Not Gonna Miss You.” I don’t have it on my IPod, but I almost don’t need it. It has been haunting me ever since. Can’t get the words or tune out of my head.