At the age of 49, Theresa Pippen, a former successful accountant, faced a life-altering diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. This debilitating condition led to her losing her job and transitioning to shelf-stacking within a year.
Her symptoms had been present for several years before the diagnosis, but neither she nor her husband, Trey Pippen, could pinpoint the cause, as dementia typically develops in one’s late 60s and early 70s.
In 2020, Trey turned to their YouTube channel to share their experience and raise awareness about the condition.
“Today we’d like to share with you our story with Alzheimer’s disease,” he mentioned.
“Theresa was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease back in November of 2018 at the age of 49 however, our story doesn’t start there. It actually starts several years prior to that, back in late 2012/early 2013 where Theresa was starting to show signs of mild cognitive impairment.”
Discussing the early indicators, he added: “However, we didn’t really know what it was called back then, but Theresa was definitely starting to change, she was, earliest signs were basically failure to keep commitments or keep promises that she made. She would start projects and not finish them.”
“She was starting to spend less and less time with her family, and became estranged from a few of them. Our marriage started to suffer as a result of some of these changes, because I was frustrated with what was going on, and I couldn’t figure out what why these changes were taking place.”
Unbeknownst to them at the time, one of the initial symptoms affected Theresa’s ability to perform her job effectively.
“She also started having trouble at work. In 2014, she was demoted. Theresa had worked as an accounting professional for nearly 20 years, and many of those years as a senior financial analyst, and suddenly she was struggling with her job, and she got demoted.”
Trey further described how she managed to maintain her position for two more years before being laid off, despite working long hours and often being the last to leave the office. Unknown to her, her cognitive abilities were declining.
“Her termination occurred at a time where the company was going through a merger and a number of people were laid off. So, it wasn’t immediately evident to me that it was related to any sort of cognitive impairment that she might have been having,” he recounted.
Finding a new job was a challenge for Theresa, which surprised Trey, as she used to assist him with his resumes. After attending numerous interviews and being hired and then fired from one position, she decided to leave accounting.
Theresa briefly worked as a receptionist before being dismissed and eventually took a job at a local supermarket in 2017.
After a year in this role, it became clear that the situation was more serious than just stress and depression. It was then they received the heartbreaking diagnosis.
Sadly, Theresa passed away on March 3 of the previous year.