In 2013, in the middle of a conventional senior lifestyle – busy with work, family, friends and an overall grand life – a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease took Nancy Nelson by surprise. The diagnosis changed her life in a way no one (even she) expected: she became a poet, published author, public speaker and Alzheimer’s advocate.

“There are so many people who handle the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s in different ways,” she said. “You will never hear me say, ‘I have Alzheimer’s.’ You’ll hear me say, ‘I was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.’ I don’t let it define me. It’s not who I am.”

All of her life, Nelson says she was “nudged” to do things she didn’t think she was capable of doing. In 2000, at the age of 60, she learned to swim and ride a bicycle in order to participate and finish a triathlon. So, when she immediately started to write poetry – another unfamiliar activity – almost immediately after her diagnosis it wasn’t completely surprising. Oftentimes at 3 or 4 in the morning, she would awake and begin writing as if the words were channeled to her. Her feelings of intermittent fear, frustration and scarcity in struggling with such a dreadful disease, one that took her father, transformed to feelings of inner strength, resolve and sometimes awe.

The determination that pushed her to learn to swim in order to complete the half-mile water portion of the triathlon also forced her to not take her diagnosis lying down. And she wasn’t about to blindly take medications, just because a doctor handed them to her.

When she walked into her holistic physician’s office, she couldn’t recall how to draw a clock – from the circle to the hands to the numbers. She had drawn a blank. Through these and other similar encounters with all sorts of practitioners, Nelson found a Mediterranean diet, coconut oil, herbs and exercise has increased her functionality. She sought after and found the balance that worked for her – something she encourages all people to do, regardless of health

“I can now draw you that clock,” she said.

Nelson grew up and was living in a small bedroom community outside Seattle when her family enticed her to migrate to Las Vegas nearly 50 years ago. She spent 26 years of her professional life working for a major airline, which also allowed her to travel worldwide. Recently retired from a well-known insurance company and ready to relinquish her fast and furious pace, she now claims a calmer, quieter life as a writer. She has taken several writing classes, worked with a writing coach, attended the Wordcrafters Writing Conference this year in Eugene, Oregon, and attends two bi-monthly writing groups.

In 2013, the year of her diagnosis, Nelson served on the Leadership Council with the Desert Southwest Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association and was the chapter’s volunteer of the year in 2016. On the national level, she served on the National Early-Stage Alzheimer’s Advisory Group (ESAG) directed through the Alzheimer’s Association headquarters in Chicago. Nelson and all of the ESAG members (2006-2016) were honored with the Outstanding Advocate of the Year award during the Advocacy Forum, applauding the group’s work to raise awareness of the disease and advocate on behalf of the millions of people living with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia. In 2018, she was named “Nevada Senior Citizen of the Year.”

It is through sharing, stepping up and speaking out that Nelson finds her solace and her calling to emancipate the stigma attached to the people relegated to a diminishing memory. The cause, she says, bolsters the “roguish, stubborn ruggedness in me for a worthwhile fight” and to maintain dignity, honor and respect through all of it.