At first it was little things — conversations forgotten, details neglected — that warned of the devastation to follow for John Frei. A project manager who built homes and then banks for a living, he was still in his early 50s and didn't notice the changes. But his colleagues did. So did his three children and his wife, Joanne. "John became very quiet and withdrawn," Joanne said. "Not his normal, happy self." For a year, his doctors offered lots of wrong guesses until a three-day visit to the Mayo Clinic last October confirmed the diagnosis. "It may sound strange," Frei said, "but it was a huge relief to find out I've got Alzheimer's."

Star Tribune, by Warren Wolfe, 9/29/11

Tags: Neurology