Gene Wilder's Widow on What It's Like to Care for Someone With Alzheimer's

Karen Wilder, widow of actor/activist Gene Wilder, discusses caring for her husband when he was battling Alzheimer's disease, reports ABC News . She cites a Stanford Medicine study which determined that 40 percent of Alzheimer's caregivers die before the afflicted person, "from the sheer physical, spiritual, and emotional toll of caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's." Wilder says she permitted the Gates Foundation to use her husband's character of Willy Wonka in the "Pure Imagination Project," a video campaign designed to raise awareness about Alzheimer's and encourage everyone to contribute. "It is a strange, sad irony that so often, in the territory of a disease that robs an individual of memory, caregivers are often the forgotten." Wilder notes. "Without them, those with Alzheimer's could not get through the day, or die — as my husband did — with dignity, surrounded by love."