Rudy Rice, 73, remembers many things about growing up with nine sisters on a farm on Whitefish Stage Road.

Yet he can’t recall what he had for lunch or that he has asked you the same question several times within an hour.

As one of an estimated 5.1 million Americans with Alzheimer’s disease, Rice knows the frustration of getting lost trying to find places. With the help of a caregiver from Agape Home Care, Rice still lives in his own apartment.

“I’ve lost a whole bunch of memory,” Rice said.

He sat down for an interview with his daughter Teri Arnst and caregiver Alyssa Allen to bring attention to the disease and promote the Walk to End Alzheimer’s Disease that takes place today at Lawrence Park in Kalispell.

Registration and check-in for the walk start at 1 p.m. today. The walk officially begins at 2 p.m.

Arnst wants to do whatever she can to help support research into the disease that afflicted her grandmother, her father and two of his sisters.

“You and I are going to go out and walk around the park,”  she said, clapping her arm around her father’s shoulders.

Rice enjoys reminiscing about his early life that began with his birth in 1939 in North Dakota. He said that his father followed brothers who had relocated to Flathead Valley when Rice was about 8.

They set up housekeeping on a farm. Rice recalled that they had hard times and he still remembers how Doug Wise gave them credit to buy food at Sykes’ grocery store.

“That really helped us a lot,” he said. “I graduated from Whitefish High School in 1957. After about a year, I went into the Army. Then dad got sick and they gave me ‘early out.’”

A few years later, Rice went to work as a general laborer on a highway project. He learned how to run a road grader while on the job and that became his career field.

He married in 1969 but later divorced. Arnst was his only child.

According to Rice, he had small memory issues beginning as early as 10 years after he got out of the Army. Arnst said she first noticed his problem in about 1996 or 1997 when he was still driving a grader for a living.

“It was becoming quite apparent that he would forget things,” she said. “You would have a conversation and 10 minutes later he wouldn’t remember.”

Rice said he was able to work in spite of his growing memory problems because his job was repetitive, driving back and forth over sections of road. He remembers that his mother had similar problems.

“Mom was a lot like me,” he said. “She lost her bearing.”

 He recalled that his mother liked to go to Sykes’ but she would get lost— just as he would now — trying to go on her own. His caregiver Allen takes him to Sykes’ every day to socialize since he no longer drives.

Allen said waitresses at Sykes’ help her make sure that he eats more than just his favorite coconut cream pies.  

“The big thing about dad is he likes to talk to people and tell stories,” Arnst said. “He can tell you what he did in 1942 but he can’t tell you what he did this morning or what someone just asked him.”

To pass time, he enjoys completing crossword puzzles at home and loves going to a dance once a week. Rice also likes picture puzzles although Arnst said she has had to find less complicated puzzles with larger pieces..

She said they keep his brain busy. Arnst noted that her dad does well as long as he has something to do or people around.

“When he’s alone, he gets muddled up and starts to get frustrated.”

Allen said she goes for walks with him, runs errands and cooks dinner for him. Rice stays alone from 10 p.m. to 10 a.m.

According to Arnst, he has a routine that he usually follows without assistance. He goes to bed and to sleep, not waking and wandering as some Alzheimer’s’ patients do.

“He wakes up and makes cereal and toast and takes his meds about 90 percent of the time,” she said. “It’s been a good ritual for him.”

Rice takes Aricept, a medication that inhibits the breakdown of a chemical messenger in the brain important for learning and memory. According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s website Alz.org, this class of drugs called cholinesterase inhibitors delay worsening of symptoms for an average of six to 12 months in about half the people who take them.

Arnst said no medications cure or stop the progress of Alzheimer’s. For that reason, she encourages people to support research by participating in the Walk to End Alzheimer’s’ on Sunday starting with check-in at 1 p.m.

With the risk factor of a strong familial link, Arnst admits that she worries about developing Alzheimer’s disease herself. She describes herself as just like her father in so many ways and said that it bothers her a lot whenever she forgets something.

She has told her husband that she expects to follow in her dad’s footsteps. As she said that, her father patted her affectionately.

“I hope you have as many good people around you as I do,” he said.

With enough resources dedicated to finding a cure, a breakthrough could save Arnst and millions of people from the devastation of the disease. Rice seems to have accepted his fate of the same decline he saw in his mother and two sisters.

He had just one regret.

“Being the man of the family for so long-I no longer have the ability to be the man,” he said. “All the girls, Teri and her aunts, take care of me.”

For more information, visit Alz.org and search for the Walk to End Alzheimer’s or call the Montana area office at (406) 252-3053.

Reporter Candace Chase may be reached at 758-4436 or by email at cchase@dailyinterlake.com.