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ost weeks, MSNBC
and NBC News anchor
Richard Lui fl ies from
New York City to San Francisco to
care for his father, Stephen, who was
diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease in- Lui anchors on weekends, which
allows him to travel coast to coast to
be with his parents.
passionate about raising awareness ofoutlooksRICHARD LUI
where we piled into the station wagon
to see my mom’s family in L.A., to
gathering for Ching Ming, it was never
explicitly said, ‘You have to take care of
your family,’ it was simply understood.Like many families of any background,
Asian American and Pacifi c Islander
families like ours take on the
responsibility of caregiving without
thinking twice — an unwritten and
sometimes unspoken practice that
family is number one.DO YOU HAVE ADVICE FOR
OTHER LONG-DISTANCE
CAREGIVERS?
Whether you are a drive away or a
fl ight away, just start. If you can’t do
it every week, or every month, or even
every six months, then just decide
what you can do and spend the time
to be overnight with your loved one. If
you don’t stay overnight and you go for
the dinner, the birthday, the Christmas
Day presents being opened, you don’t
get the full picture of what they’re
going through. It’s always easy to look
good for dinner. It’s not easy to look
good at two in the morning.WHAT HAVE YOU LEARNED
FROM CARING FOR YOUR
FATHE R?
When you’re in the trenches, you don’t
realize until you’re out of it how much
you’ve changed or how much your
health — physical and mental — can
be challenged. Our family has learned
more about each other, and it’s made
us stronger and better people. I do
believe that’s part of what my dad’s
still teaching us without knowing.Photo by Robert Trachtenberg
Special Issue| ALZ• 33