A wife remarried her husband after Alzheimer's took his memory. She wants others to find joy amid loss.
Andover, Connecticut — Peter and Lisa Marshall's wedding day was unforgettable, according to Lisa. But her husband quickly forgot it.
"It's the saddest part because you want to reminisce, and you're alone in the memory," she told CBS News in 2021.
In 2018, Peter was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's. Eventually, he not only forgot his wedding day, but he also forgot his wife. Lisa became just another nameless caretaker.
And yet, a whisper of their love must have remained — because all of a sudden, Lisa said, her husband started courting her, as if they'd just started dating.
One day, when a wedding scene came on TV, Peter pointed to the screen and said, "Let's do it."
"And I said, 'Do what?' And he pointed again. And I said, 'Do you want to get married?!' And he got this grin on his face and he said, 'Yeah.' So he fell in love with me again," Lisa said.
Lisa accepted his proposal. In 2021, she staged a wedding for her already husband.
"I can't even describe to you how magical it was. He was so present. And he was so happy. And it was very touching," she said.
Lisa said Peter hadn't been this lucid in weeks. But, it was a Cinderella moment. The clock struck midnight and by the next morning, their second wedding too was lost to the fog. But Lisa said she fully expected that.
"I'm the one who's going to remember that. And that's going to help me heal later," she said at the time.
Unfortunately, later came. Peter died about a year ago.
Lisa is now advocating for other Alzheimer's patients and their families. She has also written a book called, "Oh, Hello Alzheimer's."
"I wanted people to understand the devastation of the disease, but mostly, I want people to continue to find joy, and really focus on being present with their loved ones," she recently told CBS News.
Do that and, she says, Alzheimer's will never defeat you, it will just make your love all the more invincible.
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- Alzheimer's Disease
Steve Hartman has been a CBS News correspondent since 1998, having served as a part-time correspondent for the previous two years.
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