Sharley Funk: Slowly Losing a Husband to Early-Onset Alzheimer’s

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DB Podcasts

Religion & Spirituality, Christianity

4.8 • 6.2K Ratings

🗓️ 3 July 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Lance Funk was just 51-years-old when he was diagnosed with Early-Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Over the past few years, his wife, Sharley, has watched as her once strong, vivacious husband has all but disappeared from before her eyes and yet, for now, he is still with her physically and she is determined to cherish the time they have left together. On this week’s episode, Sharley explains why she has tried to be open and honest in documenting her family’s experience with Alzheimer’s.

2:03- Signs and the Release of a Diagnosis
8:05- Falling in Love with Lance
11:29- Open and Honest
14:13- Receiving Service
17:11- Disappearing
20:26- Still There
22:45- The Honor of Caregiving
26:00- Going to Work
29:30- Anxiety and the Darkest Parts of Alzheimers
32:19- Anticipatory Grief and Fatigue
37:28- Preparing to Let Go
42:24- What Does It Mean To Be All In the Gospel of Jesus Christ?

"I’m going to take this time...and just enjoy this and just lay my head on his shoulder and just remember what it feels like to sit next to him and to hear him breathe."

Links:

Sharley's Instagram account: https://www.instagram.com/the_moment_of_funk/

Transcript

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0:00.0	Lance Funk is not your typical Alzheimer's patient.
0:04.0	Diagnosed at the age of 51 and in seemingly perfect health,
0:08.0	Charley Funk has watched her husband's health deteriorate
0:12.0	since his initial diagnosis in 2021.
0:15.9	In describing this experience, she wrote, in some ways it's like being a young mom, but instead
0:22.0	of watching a baby grow and progress, I watch Lance forget.
0:27.0	Charlie Funk has shared her open and honest perspective of having a husband with early onset
0:32.4	Alzheimer's on her Instagram account, the
0:35.4	moment of funk. She and her husband Lance live in southern Utah and are the parents of
0:40.8	three children and in 2023 became grandparents for the first time.
0:45.8	This is all in an LDS Living podcast where we ask the question, what does it really mean to be
0:57.1	All In, the Gospel of Jesus Christ?
0:59.4	I'm Morgan Pearson, and I am so honored to have Charlie Funk on the line with me today.
1:04.4	Charlie welcome.
1:05.4	Thank you Morgan. I'm very honored to be here.
1:09.2	Well, this is so, so I feel like I should tell listeners before we start that this episode, the president of Deseret Book, Laurel Day, sent me a message and she had run across your Instagram account Charlie and she said I think
1:25.7	this woman has a really valuable perspective to share and so I went to your Instagram in the very first picture that popped up, had your daughter
1:35.7	Riley in the picture.
1:37.7	And Riley and I served our missions together.
1:40.0	And so I was like, man, this is such a small world.
1:42.6	But I, she was such a great missionary.
1:45.8	And so I immediately I said, well, she was an amazing missionary.
	...

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