Still Alice: March 2005 Summary & Analysis

Standing at the podium to give her presentation, Alice looks out into the crowd and notices John, Anna, Charlie, Tom, Mary, Cathy, Dan Sullivan, and Dr. Sullivan. She touches her butterfly necklace and begins her talk.

Alice tells the audience that she is there to speak with them as “an expert on Alzheimer’s disease” because she is living with it. Alice tells them that those in the early stages of dementia “feel like we are neither here nor there” and that it’s “very lonely and frustrating.” Alice says she struggles to “understand what you are saying, what [she is] thinking, and what is happening around [her],” that she is “losing [her] yesterdays” and has no control over which ones she gets to keep. Alice says she “fear[s] tomorrow” because she doesn’t know if she will lose her “me-ness” or if that is something that is “immune to the ravages of Alzheimer’s.”

Alice says that she is not “someone dying,” but is “someone living with Alzheimer’s.” She encourages early intervention by physicians and not simply writing symptoms off as depression or menopause. Alice expresses hope for a cure even though she “may never be able to retrieve what [she’s] already lost.” She pleads with the audience not to “write […] off” Alzheimer’s patients, but to talk, work with, and listen to them. Alice says she “live[s] for each day” now and assures the audience that just because she’ll forget this moment, “that doesn’t mean that today didn’t matter.” Alice receives a standing ovation and notices her family crying and smiling, including John, who has “unmistakable love in his eyes and joy in his smile.”