My dad and his dad passed from Alzheimerβs complications, and one of my uncles has it too. Iβve resigned myself that Iβll have it too if I live long enough.
When he had prostate cancer treatment in the early 2000s, my dad filled out a values statement and said that if he ever got Alzheimerβs, he wanted to go out like an Eskimoβjust wander out into a blizzard and not come back. Similar sentiment which you are expressing.
The last ten years of my dadβs life were intensely sweet and enriching to everyone around him. The love my mother showed him in caring for him was like nothing I could imagine. Young lovers sometimes say βI want to grow old with you,β but they don't have the faintest clue what that means. My mother and father lived it, a declining life of devotion to each other.
Some of the best memories in my life are slow walks around the block with my shuffling dad in the last year. He wasnβt able to form sentences anymore but it was a period of intense love. Heβd stop and look at every airplane and helicopter overhead. We shared that time, that space, and it was a gift. Iβm eternally grateful for that season with him.
It can be sweet, for you and especially for those around you. Accept it for what it is, and help others to do the same.
There are things like diet, exercise (particularly strength training), and mental games (learning and playing music, learning a new language, doing crosswords and sudoku, etc.) that can help slow the decline.