Jonathan Greene

Hey friends! My name is Jonathan Greene. I am from Lexington, KY, and I am a sophomore at Western Kentucky University, majoring in Biology and Chemistry.

Going back to my childhood, I remember how excited I was for family road trips to visit my grandparents in Florida. I would swim in the lake outside their house, beg my grandma Mimi to buy donuts, and help Mimi and my mom make family dinners. Those are some of the memories I want to hold on to for the rest of my life. When I was 10 years old, Mimi was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. It’s hard to clearly remember who my grandma actually was. My memories are clouded with images of her struggling to recall her favorite stories and of my family deciding to put her in a memory unit.

A couple months after putting Mimi into the memory unit, my family was visiting for Christmas. On our last day, Mimi refused to get out of bed. My family tried everything to entice her to get up. This made for a very snappy grandmother, who clearly wasn’t thinking as her real, loving self. It also made for an upset mom. When my main comforter, my mom, needs comforting, I know something is wrong. It hurts to know Alzheimer’s can be passed down genetically and is a possibility in my mom’s future. I can’t imagine suffering how my mom has.

I’ve decided to go on Bike4Alz to fight for my grandma’s memories, for the future of my mom’s memories, and for my memories of two beautiful women I love.