Terry Pratchett, one of Lily's and my favorite authors, has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's. I'm so sad. You can read the BBC story here. By the way, he's donated $1 million for Alzheimer's research. He's still writing but has quit driving. He said, "Personally, I'd eat the arse out of a dead mole if it offered a fighting chance.
"I am, along with many others, scrabbling to stay ahead long enough to be there when the cure comes along.
"Say it will be soon - there's nearly as many of us as there are cancer sufferers, and it looks as if the number of people with dementia will double within a generation."
In a separate, older story, I loved his response to J. K. Rowling's statement that she didn't know Harry Potter was a fantasy while she was writing it. Pratchett said:
"I would have thought that the wizards, witches, trolls, unicorns, hidden worlds, jumping chocolate frogs, owl mail, magic food, ghosts, broomsticks and spells would have given her a clue?"
I don't know whether people will be reading his work in 100 years, but he's certainly given a lot of pleasure and laughter to people during his lifetime. We loved the books about the young witch Tiffany Aching, and the other witches, too. We just finished Maskerade and are now listening to Wyrd Sisters.
I hope they find a cure for Alzheimer's. It's too late for my mother. I'm so sorry to hear about Pratchett. What a fine and wonderful mind.
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