He asks her if she recognizes the woman.
Maria says yes, its her.
What about the man, Rodriguez asks.
Maria, 79, looks puzzled.
The fact that she at least recognizes herself deeply moves Rodriguez.
For me, it reinforces the fact that shes still there, she still has memories, he says.
As is typical withAlzheimers disease, the symptoms appeared gradually.
Rodriguez would call her from work at midday, for instance, and shed say she hadnt eaten.
She only had an appetite for coffee, shed tell him.
She stopped cooking, which she had always enjoyed.
And she became forgetful.
Then came the suspicions.
Maria had hidden them keys, silverware, plates, brand-new eyeglasses and forgot that she had done so.
They conducted imaging of the brain and asked Maria a series of questions.
At one point, the neurologist tested her ability to tell time.
The diagnosis and disease upended the Puerto Rican couples lives, including post-retirement travel plans.
It was not to be, he says.
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It is a scenario Castro knows well.
She saystensions arose among the four siblingsas their mothers symptoms worsened.
Two of the siblings live farther away, they have kids, the kids have sports, school.
There are competing priorities.
A brother, who lives farther away, comes to the house once a week to help.
We have our rotation, says Castro, who was born in Guatemala and now lives in Chicago.
But Im the one taking the primary caregiver role.
So Castro decided to quit her full-time project management job and strike out on her own as a consultant.
That way she could tend to her mothers growing needs.
I needed the flexibility, Castro says of leaving the corporate world.
