Mannie and Rose: One couple's journey through Alzheimer's, 'a very tricky thief'

Mannie Rezende, a film buff, went to see a movie a few years ago and when it ended, he couldn't remember where he had parked his car.

So he went home on a bus.

Mannie, 71, loves to read, but as soon as he finishes the L.A. Times or the New Yorker, he starts over again as if it's his first read-through.

"It's kind of heartbreaking," said his wife, Rose, who has watched the man she married gradually lose himself in a thickening fog. "I feel like he's just a shell of himself, and I think, 'Oh, my God, I'm really alone even though he's still here.'

"He's disappearing on me."

Mannie is one of nearly 7 million people in the U.S. who have Alzheimer's disease. That's roughly 10% of the 65-and-older population, and the numbers are growing as the population ages.

As of yet, there — to thwart a disease that makes people strangers to themselves as their loved ones bear cruel witness. But Rose wanted to share that she and Mannie have at least found a measure of support.