Santa Rosa woman walks for a cure to Alzheimer’s to honor her mother and mother-in-law

There’s a story to how Patti Wick came to own one of civilization’s greatest collections of T-shirts from past Walks to End Alzheimer’s.

But first it should be said that Wick, who’s 66 and a career Sonoma County educator, doesn’t have the T-shirts hanging on walls or stored away for safe keeping. She wears them, and she likes what sometimes happens when she does.

“People talk to me when I have one of the shirts on,” she said. And quite likely they ask about the devastating disease that is printed on it, a disease quite personal to Wick.

The teacher, school administrator and education consultant lost both her mother, Doris Carlquist, and her mother-in-law, Fern Wick, to Alzheimer’s disease.

That is why she supports, in myriad ways, the Alzheimer’s Association and its annual fundraising walk. This year’s walk happens on Oct. 10 and in this time of COVID-19 will not be held at Petaluma’s Lucchesi Park but will encourage participants to don their T-shirts and then walk or run on their own, wherever they please.

Wick has taken part in the local Walk to End Alzheimer’s since 2013. Her mom-in-law died in 2011 from complications of the disease, and her mom the following year. The women were friends, and for a time lived in the same Sonoma County memory-care home.

Wick spent a great deal of time with both. She reached out to the regional Alzheimer’s Association for advice and support, then used what she learned to work with, engage, entertain, comfort and accompany both Doris Carlquist and Fern Wick.

“This was my call to action to embrace Alzheimer’s and other dementia, and to fight for a cure,” she said. As she spoke and danced with and drew out the two women she adored, she relied also on many of the skills she’d honed as an educator.

“All those teacher tricks came in handy: getting down to people’s levels, touching, positive contact, singing and dancing. I used them all,” she said.

Along the journey, Wick met others challenged by the impacts of dementia on people they love. She began leading support groups.

Even after her two moms passed away, she continued to visit their former residence and other memory care facilities. The people living there would often light up she turned up some dance music and enticed them to dance or move or sway however they could.

And she’d sign up, and help to plan, each year’s Walk to End Alzheimer’s, a central purpose of which is to raise donations for the work of the Alzheimer’s Association.

For more information on the Oct. 10 walk, go to act.alz.org/Sonoma-Marin2020.

As first, Wick didn’t want to ask people to support her in the walk by making donations. For her first walk, in October of 2013, she simply kicked in $100 herself, and walked.

For the good of the Alzheimer’s Association and the people it serves, Wick then built the resolve to seek donations. And today, she’s the leading fundraiser for the Sonoma-Marin walk, with nearly $40,000 raised.

Wick’s fundraising page is at act.alz.org/goto/pattiwick

Wick speaks of perceiving that over time people are overcoming their reluctance to speak opening about Alzheimer’s, and as the disease has moved from the shadows it has attracted more essential research funding.

“I think there’s a greater awareness about the disease,” she said. “There is still some stigma attached to it. But people are more willing to talk about it now, and to reach out for help.”

Now, about all of those Walk to End Alzheimer’s T-shirts of hers.

Wick owned a nice collection from her involvement in past walks when the 2017 Tubbs fire devoured her family’s home. The shirts all burned.

Hearing of the loss, folks at the regional Alzheimer’s Association office did what they could: they presented Wick with a grand collection of T-shirts from past walks. As she pulls one on and heads out, she hopes the shirt may spark a conversation about the disease she’d love to help relegate to the past.

You can contact Chris Smith at 707 521-5211and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.