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Before I Forget

Trish Vradenburg

Biography: I'm a playwright, author, television writer, and Alzheimer’s disease advocate. My husband George and I founded UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, with the goal of finding a cure or treatment for Alzheimer’s by the year 2020. I post here on the AARP blog every other Thursday.

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Trish Vradenburg 'sPosts

For Mom, My Heroine, on Mother’s Day

Posted on 05/12/2013 by | Before I Forget | Comments

Personal HealthMy mother had a cleft palate.  It was fixed when she was three years-old, and you could never tell anything was wrong by looking at her, but it left her with two impediments: her speech and her mother. Because of my mom’s speech impediment, my grandmother told my mom she would probably never get married.  Really?  Is that the way you bolster your child’s self-confidence?  Maybe she thought she was protecting her daughter from the harsh realities of life.  To …

The Lady with All the Answers

Posted on 02/12/2013 by | Before I Forget | Comments

Personal HealthDear Abby:  I have always wanted to have my family history traced, but I can’t afford to spend a lot of money to do it. Have you any suggestions? — M. J. B. in Oakland, Calif. Dear M. J. B.: Yes. Run for a public office. Such was the incisive wit of Pauline Friedman Phillips, known to millions as Dear Abby. Affectionately nicknamed “Popo” by friends, Dear Abby was the advice maven of a generation – or rather, generations. Dear …

The Sexy Goddess

Posted on 01/14/2013 by | Before I Forget | Comments

Personal HealthRita Hayworth was a dazzler.  Women wanted to be her; men wanted to be with her. She was a graceful and electric dancer.  Her mother was in the Ziegfeld Follies, but wanted her daughter to act; her father, a renowned dancer, wanted her to dance.  They both got their way. Margarita Carmen Cansino was born in Brooklyn in 1918.  In 1937, feeling that her name typecast her, she dyed her brown tresses a blazing red and became Rita Hayworth.  She …

JR Will Never Die…

Posted on 12/11/2012 by | Before I Forget | Comments

Personal HealthA shameless rogue with a conscience that must have been surgically removed at birth, “Dallas” character JR Ewing was envied, loved, despised, almost killed, and yet he was impossible to resist. No one could have played him with such magnificent relish – an irresistible villain – like Larry Hagman.  This was a man who embraced life with a joyous sense of abandon: he rode a Harley-Davidson wearing a chicken suit, made love flying a plane, put bourbon on his cornflakes. …

I Must Have a Puppy

Posted on 10/24/2012 by | Before I Forget | Comments

Personal HealthIt occurs to me that my mother never told us some basics about what she wanted should she ever have Alzheimer’s.  True, few people think in those terms, but since both my grandmother and mother had Alzheimer’s, there’s a good chance I will be next.  So, here’s my first list for my husband, daughter and son: I must have a puppy to lick me and stay by my side and think everything I do is wonderful. Hair: I must always …

Stepping into My Own Prime Time

Posted on 10/2/2012 by | Before I Forget | Comments

Personal HealthFor years I was a sitcom writer; my shows were always in prime time. I have been writing voices for Designing Women, Family Ties, Kate and Allie.  Yup, that’s me – except not really. They have been what Julia Sugarbaker would assert on her soapbox, what Alex Keaton would wisecrack to his way-too-liberal parents, what Kate would say supportively to Allie. I would give them lines, but they were never my voice. That’s the trick to writing for others on TV: you write …

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