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Adapting to changes in my day-to-day life

By April 22, 2020Commentary, COVID-19

Contributed by Bill Edwards, UCI MIND Leadership Council and Speakers Bureau Member, former Alzheimer’s Caregiver, CEO and Global Advisor for Edwards Global Services, Inc.

“It is not the strongest or the most intelligent who will survive but those who can best manage change.” Charles Darwin

As a father, grandfather, business owner, and volunteer for UCI MIND, my life has been severely impacted by the coronavirus pandemic.

Here in Southern California, my daughter and I are, of course, shut in. We seldom go out except once a week to shop or to exercise. Less than 50 miles on the car in a month is ironic as the gas prices are way down! Across the country in the Cincinnati area, my youngest daughter and her family are working and schooling from home. It took my 4-year-old granddaughter a week to understand that Mom and Dad are not home on vacation and have to work each day. My 10-year-old granddaughter has daily online lessons and weekly Zoom meetings with her 4th grade class.

As a business owner with 100% ties to operations in other countries, my international teams are all shut down in their homes in 22 countries, including such virus hot spots as Australia, Italy, the Philippines, Spain and the UK.  My focus has been on maintaining my US team to get ready for when things start up again. We are fortunate to have years of experience operating virtually in almost 30 countries!   

As an advocate for UCI MIND, I really miss attending meetings and events and cannot wait until this is over to start speaking again to the community about the impact of Alzheimer’s disease on families, how you can lower you chances of getting this horrible disease and what UCI MIND is doing for the SoCal community.

In times like these, families impacted by Alzheimer’s disease must all come together to support one another. We are very lucky to have the UCI MIND community to communicate and share in this experience together.