Why I take my flower with me on the Alzheimer's walk

Recently, my friend and I participated in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s. When you register for the walk, you are given a flower. The different color flowers all represent something different. Blue flowers mean you are someone who has Alzheimer’s or other memory impairment, purple flower means that you have lost someone to Alzheimer's disease, orange flower means you are an advocate and a yellow flower means you are caring for someone with Alzheimer's disease.

My friend took a yellow flower because she is a caregiver for her husband who has dementia and I took a blue flower because I live with a memory impairment. I remember when we got our flowers, the woman at the table was explaining the colors, which I already knew. I requested a blue one and she said “bless you.”

Before the walk, we are supposed to plant the flowers in the garden, but the group that we walk with usually takes them with us on the walk. Some other walkers do the same thing, but most people plant them. When they are done walking, they look among the flowers to find theirs.

Although I know, as someone who is living with a memory impairment, it would probably be easy for me to find my blue flower, since there aren't too many of them. It just would be staring at me and I think that would be hard for me to deal with it. I hope that makes sense. I guess I would like to try to blend in. I also don't want the stress of trying to find my flower after the walk.