[Bertuzzied]

This is pretty sad sight for Calgary's best mayor and Alberta's best premier ever.

I wish you the best Ralph!

http://www.calgaryherald.com/news/De...223/story.html

Colleen does almost all the talking, because Ralph can’t. The quickest tongue in Canadian politics is being silenced by a progressive form of dementia.
After months of uncertainty — and long delays in seeing specialists — the Kleins learned last Friday that Ralph, 68, suffers from what’s called “frontal temporal dementia, consistent with primary progressive aphasia.”
To the oddly vacant man sitting beside me, that means extreme difficulty in recalling and comprehending words, as well as reading and writing. His speech, once fluid and lightning-fast, is now limited to short words and set phrases.
“Good, good,” he says several times, when asked how he’s doing.
Soon he announces “I’m going to work out,” and heads off to the gym in a cab already ordered by Colleen. On doctor’s orders, she has taken away his car keys.

The high-end consulting jobs and invitations to give national speeches have fallen away. So have friendships they thought were eternal. Colleen says they get virtually no calls from former or current MLAs or ministers.
“When you’re gone, you’re really gone,” she says. “You can almost hear the doors slam. People coming up in politics should be very careful not to let their lives go completely. You’ve got to have something to go back to.”
But she’s ready to look after her husband at home until more intense care becomes essential; and with this condition, it will.
“My biggest concern is about him going into a deep depression because of the frustration. But I haven’t seen any signs of that. It’s almost as if he’s so grateful I’m here to look after him — either that, or he thinks I’m the maid.”
More laughter follows.

Going from Ralph to Farmer Ed was such a huge step backwards.