Home with her husband, diagnosed with Alzheimer's

Voices of the pandemic features people in the Seattle area who are on the frontlines of the coronavirus outbreak

This is Ruby. I am with my handsome husband, Henry, who’s got Alzheimer’s, and that’s tough right now.

I’m the primary caretaker and just lately, it’s been like serving him hand and foot, because I mean, he can’t really remember a lot of things. Right now the added work on me is to remind him all the time he needs to wash his hands, always reminding him to be careful, and not to just touch things or touch surfaces that are dirty.

When we see all this news about the pandemic on TV, we do talk about it. He always wonders why I don’t go out 'cause I’m the butterfly here -- I’m the social butterfly and I go out all the time, and I’m stuck with him. He wonders about the empty streets when we see it on TV.

But then that’s repeated like 30 seconds after we talk about it -- we switch and then we do it all over again.

We’re both grateful for this: that we love each other, and we like each other. Because if we didn’t, I don’t know ... I don’t know, I might just take my chances out there with the virus. (laughs)