BEVERLY Morrison had always tried to keep her father at home. There were times, though, when he would elude her and wander onto the streets. Tuesday, March 19 was one of those times. On Tuesday this week, exactly six weeks later, Beverly, at the request of the Yallahs police, made a painful journey to Cambridge Hill in St Thomas, more than 20 miles east of her August Town home in Kingston. Her father, 79 year-old Vernal Morrison, was found dead.

“My father was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease two years ago, and on many occasions had tried to sneak out of the house,” Beverly told the Observer Wednesday. “We usually catch him before he goes on the road but this time we did not.”

According to Beverly, who does hairdressing on Hope Road, she had reported her father missing on March 19 at the August Town Police Station. Nothing was seen or heard of him until this week when the Yallahs police called her to tell her that the skeletal remains of a man had been found Sunday in a marl pit in Cambridge Hill by someone who went to get marl.

“We know it is him because he normally carries three old identification cards with him and they found them there. He also had on his granddaughter Kenice’s green belt, which he loved to wear,” Beverly’s boyfriend, Colin Sylvester, said.

Both their faces lit up as they remembered Morrison.

“Everybody call him ‘Dads’ in the community. He was very loving and kind hearted. He loved sports like cricket, football and boxing. He was part of the team that won the 1955 Junior Cricket Cup Championships at the YMCA,” Sylvester boasted.

Morrison was a stevedore at Kingston wharves and was in very good shape for his age, Beverly said.

“Although he had retired after 36 years there, he still wanted to go back and help. We used to carry him down and leave for the day but we stopped in January when the Alzheimer’s started getting worse,” she told the Observer.

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia among older persons. It affects a person’s ability to carry out daily activities and involves the parts of the brain that control thought, memory and language.

Alzheimer’s usually begins after age 60 and the risk increases with age. About three per cent of men and women ages 65 to 74 have AD, and nearly half of those age 85 and older may have the disease. It is, however, not regarded as a normal part of aging. The causes of AD are still unknown and there is no cure.

People with AD normally have trouble remembering recent events, activities, or the names of familiar people or things. As AD worsens, persons from it may forget how to do simple tasks, like brushing their teeth or combing their hair. They can no longer think clearly. They may even become aggressive and wander away from home as happened with Morrison.

According to Beverly, her dad’s former co-workers had a difficult time monitoring him because he would sometimes put himself at risk trying to do dangerous tasks.

“The only way we could keep him home was to get him to baby-sit Shante (his one year-old granddaughter). She was the apple of his eye. When he was watching her he would stay in the house, but otherwise he wanted to go on the road,” Sylvester said.

He recounted times when the old man had wandered onto the road and had been picked up by police. Once before, Sylvester said, Morrison had gone to St Thomas and was on his way back when a co-worker found him in the Grants Pen area of Kingston.

“He did not recognise the co-worker, who saw him in some bushes in Grants Pen. His co-worker said ‘Flyer’, which is what they call him at work, ‘where are you coming from?’ and he said ‘St Thomas’.

“His co-worker asked him if he knew who was talking to him and he said no. His co-worker took him home,” Sylvester said.

As Morrison’s Alzheimer’s worsened, he started forgetting what day it was, the names of his family members and could barely complete some sentences, but Beverly said she resisted putting him in a home.

“I did not want to put him in a home because I thought I could manage it by myself, but now I am thinking maybe it would have been better if I had.”

Now, they are waiting on a post-mortem to determine the cause of death before deciding on a date for the funeral.