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THURSDAY FEBRUARY 6, 2020 dentistoakville.com 905-842-6030 AAAAAUAUAUTOTOTOPRPRPROOOOO OOOAOAOAKVKVKVILILIL EELELELE 2212212 2 W2 yecroft Road, Oakvkvillilleee 905-469-24422 autoprooakville.mechanicnet.com MECHANICAL SERVICES Michelle Cooper Insurance & Financial Services 905-826-4900 www.michellecooper.ca Get a quote Bundle your home and auto for better savings A lw ay s on lin e fir st a t in si de ha lto n. co m /c ol dc as e THIS WEEK Murder by masked invaders still stumps investigators Sometimes there are small men wrapped in burlap who pe- ruse his books. Other times he sees insects or animals where there are none, or senses someone's presence in the house, when there is no one. At times, Oakville's Leonard Howe is disoriented and fre- quently walks the house in the middle of the night with a flash- light. Or he freezes in a grocery store, not knowing where he is. Reading a book is "excruciat- ing...in the centre of sentences, the words heat up and drip away." If you had dementia pegged as an elderly person's disease all about forgetting your keys or a friend's name, Leonard and his wife Naome will unravel some of the mysteries and myths. Howe was 69 when he was di- agnosed with Lewy body demen- tia in 2016, but symptoms had be- gun to surface several years ear- lier: visual-spatial difficulties, smell impairment, digestive is- sues, paranoia and idea fixation, said Naome, who with her hus- band worked with the Alzheimer Society of Canada on its recent I Live With Dementia campaign in an effort to remove the stigma as- sociated with the disease. "The reason for our cam- paign? One in four Canadians would feel ashamed or embar- rassed if they had dementia, and dementia keeps on affecting more of us. We need to move past the fear," commented Rosanne Meandro, communications di- rector for the Alzheimer Society. The diagnosis did not come without fear and sadness, but de- spite an unknown future, the couple is determined to tackle See DEMENTIA, page 2 CAUGHT IN DEMENTIA'S MERCILESS CLUTCHES KATHY YANCHUS kyanchus@metroland.com COUPLE FACE UNPREDICTABILITY OF DISEASE TOGETHER Leonard and Naome Howe are facing his devastating Lewy body dementia diagnosis with courage and dignity, helping to reduce the stigma. Denise Militzer photo Linda Zylik BA., Broker linda@sheilaandlinda.com 260 Lakeshore Road East, Oakville ON L6J 1J1 www.sheilaandlinda.com Sheila Barry Sales Representative sheila@sheilaandlinda.com Lauren Zylik B.Comm., Broker lauren@sheilaandlinda.com Daniel Star Client Services 905-467-4745