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The household of “Jungle Jack” Hanna has revealed that the beloved former zookeeper is enduring an “superior” stage of Alzheimer’s illness, the place he doesn’t keep in mind most of his family.
“The Jack individuals knew isn’t right here anymore, however items of my husband are,” his spouse Suzi Hanna informed The Columbus Dispatch. “And I’m going to hold onto them for so long as I can.”
Jack’s spouse and daughters Kathaleen, Suzanne, and Julie revealed that he now solely remembers his spouse of 54 years, his canine Brassy, and, often, his eldest daughter Kathaleen.
He has been battling the illness in non-public since he was identified in 2019.
The 76-year-old resigned from his put up as director emeritus of Ohio’s Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Dec. 2020.
“He simply stopped remembering who I used to be in all methods. Whether or not it was in particular person or by cellphone, he had no concept I used to be his daughter,” Suzanne informed the outlet. “I believe it’s as a result of he didn’t see me as a lot as a result of I bought married so younger and I moved away.”
As he continues to battle the illness, Jack’s solely sense of normalcy is the every day two-mile walks he takes with Suzi, she notes.
“I need to maintain on to those walks so long as I can,” she informed the outlet. “I keep in mind the day this all formally began. The day the physician informed us what it was. I’ve simply tried to hold on to the little items of Jack since then.”
“My husband remains to be in there someplace,” Suzi went on. “There are nonetheless these candy, tender moments — you recognize, items of him that made me and the remainder of the world fall in love with him.”
Suzi mentioned that caring for her husband has been “actual exhausting some days, however he took care of me all these years, and so it’s my flip to deal with him.”
Elsewhere, Jack’s eldest daughter Kathaleen mentioned they determined to share such intimate particulars of her dad’s situation in a determined bid to assist others coping with the identical.
“If this helps even one different household, it’s greater than price sharing dad’s story,” Kathaleen mentioned. “He spent a lifetime serving to everybody he might. He won’t ever comprehend it or perceive it, however he’s nonetheless doing it now.”
“He solely retired because of the Alzheimer’s,” she added. “He was embarrassed by it. He lived in concern the general public would discover out.”
Kathaleen mentioned her dad “would have labored till the day he died.”
And regardless of the growing problem in coping with Jack’s declining well being, Suzi informed the outlet that she will not be trying to rent assist.
“I simply need it to be your dad and I for so long as I can,” she mentioned to her daughters. “The river, the solar, Brassy, our walks. That’s what now we have left.”
Hanna’s daughters first revealed their father’s analysis in a letter shared by the Columbus Zoo in April 2021.
“His situation has progressed a lot sooner in the previous few months than any of us might have anticipated,” they wrote on the time. “Sadly, Dad is now not capable of take part in public life as he used to, the place individuals everywhere in the world watched, discovered, and laughed alongside him.”
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