The Hanna Family want to tell Jack's Story

Hello, this is The Truth, Lies and Alzheimer's Show, brought to you by Global Media Network LLC and Passionate World Talk Radio. Passionate World Talk Radio is a wholly owned subsidiary of Global Media Network LLC, and our motto is educate, enlighten, and entertain. I'm Lisa Skinner, and you are tuning in to the Truth, Lies Alzheimer's Show. And before we get started, I'd like to shout out a very warm welcome to all of you who have joined us today. I thank you for being here and appreciate it very much. Ken was not able to be with us today, so I'm afraid you guys are just stuck with me. So anyway, today I'm going to be bringing you a very special episode paying tribute to what is right now in June, Alzheimer's Awareness Month. And I'm going to do this by honoring a man who I always enjoyed watching when he appeared as a regular guest with his critters on the Johnny Carson Show. Sadly, I recently read an article about the beloved Jack Hanna, the world-renowned animal extraordinaire, and his struggles with Alzheimer's disease. So I wanted to share this absolutely poignant story with you and give you a glimpse into another family's life that has been struck down by Alzheimer's disease. The name of the article is— Jack Hannah's Long Goodbye: How Alzheimer's Is Stripping Away the Man the World Once Knew. It was written by Mike Wagner and published in USA Today on June 21, 2023. So it's a very recent article. Bigfork, Montana. As the sunset paints the sky pink on his Montana family farm, Jack Hanna sneaks a chunk of pizza to his golden retriever when a man approaches to greet him. "Hi, Jack," the family guest says. "It's a pleasure to meet you." The longtime zookeeper's famous smile fades into curiosity. "Where are you from?" Hanna asks. Between bites. Columbus, Ohio, the family guest says. Hannah built the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium into one of the nation's best. He then captivated national audiences on David Letterman's late-night TV talk show, Good Morning America, and a number of his own Emmy-winning animal series that still run in syndication. I mentioned that I used to see him regularly on the Johnny Carson Show. He traveled the globe as a leading animal conservationist promoting Columbus. It was his home for decades. It's even where he once said he wanted his ashes spread whenever he passes away. But in this moment, none of that history feels familiar. Hannah pauses, then asks a question. "Have I ever been to Columbus, Ohio?" The Jack Hannah the world once knew is gone. At age 76, Alzheimer's disease has stripped away his memory and the life he led in the public eye for almost half a century. He was first diagnosed in the fall of 2019 with early Alzheimer's, but now the disease has advanced to the point to the point where he doesn't know most of his own family. Gone is the old Jack who enchanted nearly everyone he met with his Tennessee farm boy charm and endless funny stories. Gone are the khakis and the worn leather outback hat that he made famous around the globe. The Jack that remains now only remembers his wife Susie, his dog Brassy, and at times his oldest daughter Kathleen when she travels nearly 5,000 miles from England to care for her dad. He spends hours baking himself in the sun on the back deck of his lakeside home. He asks Susie a couple dozen times a day if she has fed the dog. He worries that the air coming out of the vents might be hurting the house or the lights on the Christmas tree might catch everything on fire. Once, Jack complained to Susie that he had gone blind. He kept forgetting he had inserted his contact lenses and his doctor discovered that he ended up with 5 contacts in each of his eyes. Families combating Alzheimer's disease are not alone. This is what you need to know. Jack looks close to the same man who the public adored, but his frame is about 20 pounds lighter, his skin is a darker shade of tan, he wears black-framed glasses to avoid another contact mishap, and the eternal smile has been replaced by a strained, vacant expression. On most days, he dresses himself in jeans, a t-shirt, and an old tattered tan baseball hat with a rhino patch from his time working at the Columbus Zoo. The couple of 54 years used to travel the world together, But for about 2 years, their life has been contained to a 30-mile radius in northwest Montana, centered around their home and a 50-acre farm. In Jack's mind, even the slightest change to his daily routine is the enemy. The continuity of his routine calms the man who has little memory of his previous life. Disruptions to it can cause outbursts of frustration or even anger, usually towards his wife Susie. He and Susie live the same day over and over and over again. Jack is restless at night and often doesn't fall asleep until 2:00 a.m. or later, which is a common experience for those living with Alzheimer's disease. They take a late morning 2-mile walk, and until very recently, they would visit their farm to feed their donkeys, but the upkeep is simply too much, so the farm went up for sale last month. There isn't much else to their days except for Jack slowly moving around the house, constantly checking the front door to see if it's locked, or inside the washing machine, but no one really understands why. "My husband is still in there somewhere," Susie said. "There are still those sweet, tender moments, you know, pieces of him that made me and the rest of the world fall in love with him. It's hard, real hard some days, but he took care of me all those days, and so it's my turn to take care of him." This is the first time The Hannah family has spoken publicly about their struggle with a disease that afflicts an estimated 6.7 million people in the United States, according to the Alzheimer's Association. There are about 24 million people worldwide living with Alzheimer's, according to the National Institute on Aging. It's the 7th leading cause of death for adults in the U.S. And is the most common cause of dementia among people over 65, according to the NIA. The Hannas are telling Jack's story because they want other families to know that they are not alone when the struggle with Alzheimer's disease feels overwhelming. If this helps even one other family, it's more than worth sharing Dad's story, Kathleen said. He spent his lifetime helping everyone he could. He will never know it or understand it, but he is still doing it now, one walk at a time. A few steps into their daily hike on the river trail about 5 miles from his home, Jack stops at the first tree he sees. Hello, tree. You're a pretty tree. Jack says, "I love you, tree. God bless." A few steps later, he touches the leaves on the next tree and holds his hands out in front of it like a preacher performing a blessing in church. What it means, only Jack knows. A few steps after that, he touches another tree, then another and another. Jack is asked why he touches all the trees, but he just says he loves them and continues down the path. Susie said the scene repeats itself nearly every day. It takes more than an hour to go for a mile walk due to all the stops, but Susie, who's 75, doesn't care. Jack can still walk pretty well for a man with 2 knee replacements and Alzheimer's disease, and the hikes remind her of the life they used to have, the life that took them all over the world together, giving them experiences with both animals and people from cultures around the world that they couldn't dream about when they fell in love as college sweethearts at Muskegon College. "I want to hold on to these walks as long as I can," Susie said. I remember the day this all officially started, the day the doctor told us what it was. I've just tried to hang on to the little pieces of Jack since then. It was October 3rd, 2019 when Jack Hanna started shaking his head back and forth in defiance the instant Dr. Douglas Shari told him that he had Alzheimer's disease. 'No way,' Jack said. 'I don't have that.' Jack had every rationalization at the ready. It was just old age. He was famous, even beloved, for his 20-second attention span. He always knew he had attention deficit disorder. His life went 100 miles per hour. He was used to traveling more than 200 days a year. And all those tests the doctors had him take must be wrong. Jack always said he was never good at taking tests in school. Shari, a neurologist and Alzheimer's specialist at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, was kind and positive while explaining the diagnosis to Jack, Susie, and their daughters, Julie and Suzanne. Shari explained that the mild cognitive impairment had transformed now into full-blown Alzheimer's. He told the family there was no doubt in his mind that the symptoms that he had traced back to 2017 were Alzheimer's disease. Julie cried in disbelief. Suzanne hurt for her dad but wasn't surprised at all because she had seen symptoms in the past year. Susie did what she could to comfort Jack, but his mood quickly darkened. He lowered his head, stared at the floor, and continued to cast doubt on the diagnosis as the devastation set in. "I know my brain doesn't work so good sometimes, but I'm okay," Jack said. "No way I've got this." Jack didn't use the word Alzheimer's that day. In fact, he never uttered it, and those around him didn't dare use it either, for Jack didn't want the world to know. And when they went back home that night, he made Susie promise that no one outside their family would ever find out. Susie said Jack was worried that if the public found out he had the disease, his career would be over, and he wasn't ready to stop working. "People will think I'm dumb, Sue," Jack said. "We can't tell anyone, Sue. Promise me." Susie vowed to her husband she would keep the diagnosis a secret. The family didn't ask Dr. Shari about life expectancy. But the Alzheimer's expert said that people with Jack's diagnosis live typically between 8 and 12 years after first showing the symptoms. Dr. Shari said Jack's reaction was not out of the ordinary. It was fairly typical, nothing dramatic, Dr. Shari said. Most Alzheimer's patients have a bit of denial. The thinking is, yeah, I'm a little forgetful, but so is everyone else. But the reality is those within Jack's world already suspected he had something much more than forgetfulness in the months before his diagnosis. Jack's family and friends said there were times leading up to the diagnosis when Jack would forget what city he was in or what he was doing that day. When he would get on stage for his traveling animal shows, he would sometimes forget names and even details about the animals that were his life. Few on the planet had more passion for educating the public about the animals and taking them to their habitats through the power of his television shows. There was another time early in 2019 when he was supposed to introduce an old friend who was receiving an award, but when he got on stage, he forgot why he was there. His family, friends, and those who worked with Jack would cover for him by speaking for him or reminding him where he was or what he was supposed to be doing at that moment. They were used to Jack's mind racing from one thing to the next without worrying about details, but this was something totally different. Guy Nickerson, Jack's longtime friend and business partner, first noticed Jack's decline when they were producing some of the last episodes of Jack's popular Into the Wild television show in the fall of 2018. On a trip in Rwanda, Nickerson explained to Jack all of the details of who they were meeting and when they were going to see the gorillas. 3 minutes later, Jack asked Nickerson the questions he had already answered. Suzy constantly tried to cover for him during filming, but there was only so much she could do. On Jack's last on a major international trip to South Africa in November of 2019, Nickerson said the man he considered to be somewhere between a father and a brother due to the close relationship they had just wasn't there anymore. We had an interview set up with a legend in the animal world and a good friend of Jack's, and when it started, Jack didn't know who he was talking with, said Nickerson, who lives in Tampa. I never said a word to Susie or Jack, but felt like the beginning— that this was the beginning of the end. I didn't know about the diagnosis until the rest of the world, but I knew something medically had to be wrong. I love Jack so much. It was so hard to watch all of that. Shortly after the Alzheimer's diagnosis, Hannan quietly started making plans to retreat from public life. His last theater performance with Animals on Stage was in March of 2020, and the COVID pandemic canceled about half a dozen more of his shows. He publicly announced his plan to retire from the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium after 42 years in June of 2020. He formally retired on December 31, 2020. Back on their Riverwalk Trail, Kathleen tears up recalling how hard it was for her parents to give up their public life while hiding was the reason for it. He would have worked until the day he died. He only retired due to the Alzheimer's disease, Kathleen said. He was embarrassed by it. He lived in fear the public would find out. The second Jack Hanna hears the word dentist, he gets back in the car. Jack needs a permanent crown on one tooth and a cavity dealt with on the other, but he won't budge from the car seat until Susie has to to lie to him. She convinces him that she's the only one who sees— that she's the one that needs to see the dentist, and he is going to hold her hand. The soft, caring husband comes out for a few minutes until Jack sees the dentist chair. He knows who's really going to be the patient today and glares at his wife. Sure, my teeth are fine, Jack says in a rising voice. Let's go home, we have to go and feed the dog. Susie and the dentist coax Jack into the chair where he continues to protest over and over. Susie holds Jack's hand at the dentist as he inserts the needle into Jack's gum. The dentist uses the same gentleness he would with a toddler, but Jack squeals in pain and tries to get out of the chair until Susie calms him and the numbing takes hold. Susie and Kathleen each take shifts comforting Jack, who manages to stay in the chair for more than 2 hours while his teeth are fixed. Susie just hates seeing her husband in pain and hates lying even more. But the family has been through far worse. "If we can get through the week we had a couple years ago, we can get through anything," Susie said. "I'm so glad Jack didn't know what happened. It literally would have crushed him." On March 25th, 2020, doctors removed another tumor from Jack's daughter's spine. Fearing if they didn't, she would no longer be able to walk. Julie Hannah almost died from leukemia in 1977 when she was only 2 years old. Jack had said helplessly watching doctors trying to save her while watching behind a glass wall was among the worst moments of his life. The primitive radiation available back then saved Julie Hannah, but it caused a lifetime of chronic pain, tumors, and surgeries. But this time, her father wasn't able to even be at the hospital. The Alzheimer's disease had advanced to the point where Jack didn't really understand what was happening to his youngest daughter. Then, as Julie continued to suffer severe pain, the Hanna family was suddenly thrust into a new fight, this one for Jack's legacy. On March 29, 2021, the Columbus Dispatch, a member of the USA Today network, reported that Tom Staff, former zoo president and CEO, and Greg Bell, former chief financial officer, resigned after an investigation by the newspaper detailed their extensive personal use of zoo resources. The zoo's board eventually conducted forensic audits which confirmed improper spending and questionable business practices by the former top 2 executives, resulting in more than $600,000 $30,000 in zoo losses. Staff and other top executives eventually agreed to pay back hundreds of thousands of dollars to the zoo. Hannah had not been an active director at the zoo since 1992 and was not directly involved in the zoo executive controversy, but he did have a close relationship with Stolf, and he helped Stolf join the zoo as its chief operating officer in 2010. Julie, who is now 48, was finally released from the hospital on April 3rd, 2021, and taken to the Hanna family home just outside the zoo. While the family cared for her and tried to digest the zoo controversy, the next blow was delivered. The Hannas learned on the morning of April 5th, 2021, that a new documentary called The Conversation Game was being released to the public. It alleged that the baby tigers and snow leopards that sat in Jack's lap on late-night talk shows often didn't come from the Columbus Zoo, and aquarium and did not end up where the cameras— when the cameras stopped rolling. Instead, the documentary says, the animals were shuffled among backyard breeders and unaccredited roadside zoos that were compared to animal prisons in some cases. The filmmaker said Jack and other celebrity animal conservationists actively misrepresented where the exotic cats came from and where they were going, leading the public to believe they were moving between accredited facilities. The Columbus Zoo eventually lost its accreditation for almost 18 months as part of the fallout. In the view of some close to the Hannas, the documentary made it It seemed like Jack didn't care if animals were being taken from and returned to places where they were abused or neglected. The next 2 days would be among the worst the Hannah family said they ever experienced. There were tears and anger and debates on how to handle it all. Kathleen, the protector of the family, wanted to rush out in front of the television cameras and defend her father, but others thought that would only add more fuel to the story. They decided not to watch the documentary ever. Kathleen said Jack was not aware of any of the controversy. It was hell, absolute hell, Kathleen said. He would never knowingly allow animals to suffer. They created a narrative around my dad that simply wasn't true. And he couldn't defend himself. My dad would have faced all this head on like he always did. In hindsight, we all wish things had been handled better by the people working with my dad. And yes, it's fair to say my dad should have known more about the animals. But he was always moving so fast. Fast. He would have wanted every animal to be safe and returned to a safe environment. He dedicated most of his life to protecting animals, so it was all so heartbreaking. Jerry Borden had a front row seat for Jack the Showman for almost 40 years. They met back in 1984 when Jerry was working in the Columbus Parks and Recreation Department, and Jack was transforming the Columbus Zoo from a dilapidated place few visited to a world-class destination for those who loved animals. Warren was the zoo's executive director from 1993 to 2008, and then after the zoo executive resigned in 2021. Warren was brought back to the zoo, uh, to be the interim CEO for about 8 months. Warren said when he returned to the zoo in 2021, he stepped into a mess surrounding the accreditation issue. He said the records or paper trail left behind by those who are responsible for acquiring and tracking the animals was not good. He said it's fair to criticize his longtime friend for not paying attention to where some of the animals he used on television came from. "The records I saw weren't good," Boren said. "Jack just didn't do details, but I do think Jack knew what was happening. If someone had told him face-to-face the animals were coming from an accredited places, I believe he would have fixed it. It was a massive crisis for sure, but the zoo has recovered and is thriving. Jack had no idea the controversies were unfolding, and family members took turns keeping him away from the television. But one evening, Jack saw his own picture on the screen and started riddling Susan with angry questions. He thought Susan had betrayed him and told the media about his Alzheimer's disease. He just kept saying, "Sure you told them, didn't you? You promised me, Sue. You promised." Susan said, "It would have broken Jack's heart to hear what was going on at the zoo. If we had tried to tell him, he wouldn't have understood." Finally, with some demanding a public response from Jack, the family decided they had no choice. It was time to tell the world about Jack's Alzheimer's disease. And yes, the family was aware that some would accuse them of exaggerating Jack's condition as a way to hide it from the media. Kathleen had lobbied for a long time to go public. But Susie did not want to betray Jack's wishes. His legacy, however, was more important. On April 7th, 2021, the family issued a short statement announcing that Jack did have Alzheimer's disease. In the following days, the Hannah family heard from many offering their sympathies. That included the celebrity Jack was associated with the most, David Letterman. On that call with Letterman, Jack retold a famous story about a beaver from the show. He repeated it to Letterman about 4 times. Letterman understood what the family was dealing with and at a point used the word Alzheimer's while the call was on the speakerphone. That caused Susie to run into the other room, fearing her husband would hear the word they never used. To this day, Jack doesn't know his family told the public he has Alzheimer's disease. It just killed me, Susie said, to break that promise. The 4 women to whom Jack devoted his life are all crying when he takes a mid-afternoon break from the Montana sun and shuffles back into the kitchen. His wife Susie is sitting at the table with Kathleen while Suzanne and Julie are on the phone from Suzanne's home in Cincinnati. Jack takes a seat at the end of the table and starts eating a bowl of grapes. He's oblivious to his daughter Suzanne talking about what it feels like to be first forgotten by him. His wife and daughter said Jack Alzheimer's has now gone from moderate to advanced. He just stopped remembering who I was in all ways, Suzanne tells her mom and sisters. Whether it was in person or by phone, he had no idea I was his daughter. I think it's because he didn't see me as much because I got married so young and I moved away. Susie hears the pain in her daughter's voice and attempts to see if Jack can remember Suzanne. Jack, Suzanne is on the phone. She's your daughter. Can you say hello? Susie asks. Can you tell her you love her? Well, Jack has no clue who is on the other end of the phone, but eventually he speaks. I love you too, sweetie, he says. Have fun. Susie is now sobbing and tells Suzanne she wishes she was there in Montana to give her a hug. What they dubbed family therapy continues for hours. They share a few raw feelings with one another that they have never before. The responsibility of caring for Jack around the clock weighs on all. Julie feels helpless that her own health problems prevent her from caring for her dad. Suzanne, 50, has 4 children. 4 grown children and helps care for Julie and wishes she could make more trips than she has to Montana. Her dad hasn't been able to attend 2 of her kids' weddings, nor has he met his only great-grandchild. Kathleen, 53, who appeared with her dad on his television shows as a young girl, has 2 teenagers and a husband back in England. She has traveled across an ocean more times than she can count, juggling two lives to help her mother care for her dad. Well, Susie is reluctant to share with her daughters just how hard it is to take care of Jack alone, not wanting them to think that she can't handle it. The night Jack threw his back out, for example, he couldn't even get off the floor. The floor, and Susie struggled to get him up on her own. Jack takes several medications multiple times a day to combat his Alzheimer's symptoms, and tracking all of them and making sure he consumes them is a part-time job by itself for Susie. Yet Susie refuses to let home health care providers come in and help her when her daughters can't be there. This frustrates and even angers Kathleen, who has begged her mom for more than a year to get help. Kathleen has even arranged for more help, only to have her mom cancel it. "Mom, you're 75 now. This is killing you," Kathleen says to Susie. "Let us give you some more help." We have the money. Oh, you need this so desperately. Susie brushes aside the plea. I'm in Switzerland, Suzanne says. Remember? Well, that's why you're the favorite, Susie says, which sparks laughter from all three daughters. Thank God we all get along, right? Kathleen says in between her tears. Throughout it all, Jack stares out toward the beautiful lake and is halfway through another bowl of grapes. "I just wanted it to be your dad and I for as long as I can," Susie said. The morning is about half over when Jack emerges from his bedroom bare-chested, wearing only jeans and a heavy lathering of shaving cream on his face. He stops, looks around the room, and flashes a sheepish smile at Susie and his guests, who can't help but laugh. This is a planned performance, one he repeats from time to time, pretending to be Santa Claus. Well, the showman is still in there somewhere, Susie said. Jack just loved making people laugh as much as he loved taking care of his animals. There was a time when Jack couldn't take 3 steps in Columbus or almost anywhere else in the world without someone asking for an autograph, wanting a selfie, or telling him that they watched him on television while they were growing up. At the Memorial Tournament in Dublin, Ohio, Jack would get more attention from the fans than the famous golfers even Tiger Woods. And Jack would have a pleasant greeting or more for every single person who approached him. Their age or skin culture— I'm sorry, their age or skin color or cultural background did not matter to Jack, and he left no one out. If he signed autographs for servers in a restaurant, he would walk back into the kitchen to say hello to the cooks and dishwashers. Jack's legacy is that he was one of the greatest advocates the world has ever seen, and the public still loves Jack for all of it. Now, when Jack walks into a restaurant in or near this Montana town of about 5,000 people, The locals might offer a friendly hello, but they give Jack and Susie their space. Those who know that Jack is living with Alzheimer's disease wait for the right moment to give Susie a hug of support and tell her to hang in there as the main caretaker. Shortly after finishing his second piece of cheesecake, Jack is eager to head back home. He's worried about his dog Brassy and that he might not have enough food and wants a few more hours of baking in the sun. Susie caresses her husband's forehead to counter the anxiety. Alzheimer's is commonly called the long goodbye, as families and friends watch their loved ones slowly fade away over time. Susie has no idea how much longer her goodbye will last. With her husband Jack. She tries not to think about the more difficult days ahead or when it might end. "The river, the sun, Brassy, our walks, that's what we have left," Susie said. "The Jack people knew just isn't here anymore, but pieces of my husband are, and I'm going to hang on to them for for as long as I can. This article made me cry, especially because it made me think of all the families out there that are dealing with this exact same heartbreaking story every single day. So, hopefully this raises awareness of just how this tragic disease impacts the families of those who are dealing with it and impacts the people who are living with it. So, on a brighter note, in my What's New segment today, I do want to tell you that on June 22, 2023, there was a PRN Newswire that announced that the Cure Alzheimer's Fund has announced that 2022 marks its 18th consecutive year of record results for contributions raised to fund research into Alzheimer's disease. A total of $32 million for the year represented an increase of nearly 14% from 2021 in funds received through the generosity of nearly 24,000 donors. In 2022, 100 research grants representing $27.4 million were issued to scientists throughout the world, which was the most in a single year. 2022 was the strongest year in Cure Alzheimer's Fund history, said Tim Armour, CEO of Cure Alzheimer's Fund. The generosity of so many has enabled Cure Alzheimer's Fund to invest in research that contributes to the significant advances in our understanding of the disease. We are simply grateful and humbled by the dedication of our donors, board of directors, trustees, and researchers for their commitment that will one day lead to a cure. The 2022 annual report detailing the financial results and research investments is now available in the report section by the Care Alzheimer's Fund website. Curealz.org. Cure Alzheimer's Fund is a nonprofit dedicated to funding the most promising research to prevent, slow, or reverse Alzheimer's disease. Since its founding in 2004, Cure Alzheimer's Fund has contributed $173 million in research and its funded initiatives have been responsible for several key breakthroughs, including the groundbreaking Alzheimer's in a Dish study. And the reason why this announcement is so exciting is because the Alzheimer's disease has been telling us for years that one of the things that has been holding a cure or treatment back from being discovered is the lack of financial contribution that the Alzheimer's funds have received. For decades and have maintained that that was really part of the reason why the cures for cancer have advanced so significantly in the last 50 or so years, unlike Alzheimer's disease. And the biggest difference is the amount of money being contributed and donated for research. So, I'm thrilled to hear that year after year the contributions are finally increasing and that maybe we truly are on the road to discovering a treatment and hopefully a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Thank you for listening to the Truth, Lies Alzheimer's show. This program can be found on our website at passionateworldtalkradio.com under the shows tab and on YouTube at PWTR. You can find me on Facebook by searching for Lisa Skinner Author, and you can find my books on Amazon. This is Lisa Skinner, your host. Thank you again for joining us for this special episode of Truth, Lies Alzheimer's, and I'll be back next week with another great episode filled with valuable and hopefully useful information for those of you who are navigating the heartbreaking challenges that Alzheimer's disease presents to us today. Thank you.