Alzheimer’s and the Flipside: a Memorial for a Friend

About six months ago, I got a note from an old friend telling me his father was in hospice care with dementia.

I’ve known this friend’s dad since I was 12 or so, and I was best friends with his son for about 30 years, before he died from a heart attack.

Jack Tracey, life long friend, father of my pal Paul

But as pals of “Flipside” know, death appears to be a temporary experience.

As reported in that book, I was walking in Tibet, around Mt. Kailash when I heard my friend’s voice clear as a bell speaking in my ear. I was complaining to myself about the altitude (about 18K in some places) carrying a backpack of film equipment (making the documentary “Journey Into Tibet with Robert Thurman”) when I thought “Wow, this is really hard to walk at this altitude.” And I heard Paul Tracey say “You think it’s hard for you, imagine how hard it was for me!”

Paul had passed away a year earlier — in fact, I was carrying the titanium ball from his hip in my backpack, as I was going to plant some of his ashes on Mt. Kailash. (His mom Lois sent me a Tupperware jar of some of his ashes, and inside was the titanium ball. As friend Dave Patlak said “The thing Paul hated most in life he willed to you!”) Paul was a star athlete when he had routine surgery that he didn’t need…