Board of Commissioners Proclaims November as Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness and Caregivers Month
The Johnston County Board of Commissioners has proclaimed November as Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness and Caregivers Month. A progressive, degenerative disease of the brain, Alzheimer’s causes loss of memory, thinking, judgment and reasoning. It also affects behavior, emotions and the ability to care for oneself.
Its impact is staggering: Alzheimer’s is the seventh leading cause of death in North Carolina and in Johnston County. One in three older adults dies with Alzheimer’s or another form of dementia, and more than half of all Americans know someone who has or had the disease.
Across the nation, more than 6 million Americans live with Alzheimer’s, including more than 210,000 North Carolinians. The disease affects more than its victims. Nearly 12 million family members and friends serve as unpaid caregivers across the country. In North Carolina, that number is about 381,000.The financial toll is heavy too. The cost of caring for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias is expected to reach $360 billion in 2025. By 2050, the cost could climb to nearly $1 trillion.
Alzheimer’s has no cure. But with early detection and diagnosis, individuals and families can access treatment medications, join research trials and take part in planning for the future.
Commissioners adopt the proclamation each year at the request of Registrar of Deeds Craig Olive, who lost one sister to the disease and has another suffering from it. “So it’s very dear to my heart,” he told commissioners at their meeting on Oct. 20. Commissioner Ted Godwin empathized with Olive. “To say my mom suffered from this is a misnomer because all of us did,” he said. “That’s the nature of this terrible disease.”
Commissioners were unanimous in adopting the proclamation.
“I appreciate all the family members and friends who are also caregivers,” said Commissioner Michelle Pace Davis, “because it affects everybody.”
Olive thanked commissioners for putting the spotlight on Alzheimer’s.
“To everyone, whether a caregiver or a victim of this dreadful disease, you are not alone in this journey,” he added in a statement. “I truly hope for a cure in the future.”
Craig Olive on Alzheimer's
For Johnston County Registrar of Deeds Craig Olive and his blended family, Alzheimer’s disease is personal. He and his kin have seen the disease ravage parents, siblings, grandparents, aunts and uncles.
Olive lost his mother, Pearl Thompson Brown Olive, to Alzheimer’s in 2007.
“She helped raise 15 children altogether — stepchildren and her own,” he recalls in an interview from his office in the Johnston County Courthouse.
But Pearl was more than his mom.
“At age 45, she went back to school and got her nursing degree at what was then Johnston Technical College,” Olive says. “She then worked 16 years as a nurse at WakeMed.”
“We’ve got a scholarship in her name at the college,” a proud Olive adds. “And they even named a room after her.”
But in her early 70s, Alzheimer’s began robbing him of the mother and woman he knew.
She did and said inexplicable things, Olive says. “She put utensils in the trashcan,” he recalls. “She walked out into the median of Highway 70. She’d say she had to go pick my brother up from work, something she hadn’t had to do in years.”
His mother had been a regular at what was then the Clayton Senior Center, now the Clayton Center for Active Aging. “But we had to stop that,” Olive says, explaining that his mother became too much for staff to handle. “Mama was wandering around, even going into the men’s bathroom by mistake.”
Olive became his mother’s caregiver, but he had help. “My mother was going to an adult day care program over here at First Baptist Church and then at Divine Destiny, another adult day care,” he says. “That was a big help for me.”
But then his mother suffered a brain bleed in a fall, and Olive had to keep her at home. “She was never like she had been before,” he says.
After his mother’s fall, Olive turned to in-home care for help, and he sang the praises of those caregivers, including Martha Godwin. “She’s like family,” he says all these years later. “She was a jewel, and Camille Hunter too.”
Craig Olive and his mother, Pearl Thompson Brown Olive
For those who can afford it, Olive recommends in-home care. “I have nothing against nursing homes,” he says. “I just wish they had more staff members.”
For caregivers, Olive recommends self-care. “You need to allow time for yourself,” he says, “because it can take a toll. You’re under stress, worrying all the time.”
Caregivers can find themselves sacrificing things that gave them joy, adds Olive, who most recently found himself caring for a brother who died earlier this year of kidney disease. “I love the beach, and I haven’t been to the beach in four years because of being a caregiver,” he says.
“You need to get away from the whole situation and give yourself time to do things,” Olive says.
And by all means, take advantage of the resources available, he says. “It’s a long, lonely, hard road,” Olive says of Alzheimer’s caregiving.
For help and advice, he turned to his mother’s doctors, Community & Senior Services of Johnston County, the state’s Division of Aging, the Johnston County Department of Social Services and the N.C. Alzheimer’s Association.
“It made the journey a lot easier,” Olive says.
Craig Olive's Niece, Melanie Nunn, Shares Her Story
Note: Earlier this year, Johnston County Registrar of Deeds Craig Olive lost his sister, Brenda Ann Brown Dixon, to Alzheimer’s disease. Below, Brenda’s daughter shares her mother’s journey with dementia.
Early on, Melanie Nunn and her siblings thought their mother was suffering from hearing loss.
“Conversations over the telephone became different and shorter than usual,” Nunn recalls. “We even pursued getting her hearing aids, but they didn’t help.”
But the family was also aware that a far worse diagnosis was possible. “We knew fairly early that mom had the possibility of developing dementia as I talked her into getting an APO-E blood test,” Nunn says.
The test determines a person’s genetic risk for Alzheimer’s.
“Her result came back as a 3/4,” Nunn says. “This meant mom was most likely going to develop dementia.”
And her mom’s doctor confirmed an early diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment.
“I’m thankful for the blood test and knowing early that mom had a high probability of developing dementia,” Nunn says. “This allowed us to prepare as much as we could and to really cherish our time together while she still had some clarity of mind.”
Because the diagnosis was early, her mom was able to remain at home, where Nunn’s dad was her main caregiver.
“Since I lived close by, I gave dad breaks a few times a week for a few hours,” Nunn says. “I would wash and style mom’s hair and make sure she got a good bath and her hygiene was taken care of.”
Her mom found it hard to decide which outfit to wear each day. “So we went through her closet and paired outfits — tops with pants were hung together — and narrowed her choices to five,” Nunn says. “This helped her and my dad immensely.”
Her father needed more help than he admitted. “He didn’t want us to worry,” Nunn says. “Mom had always done the laundry, cooking, house cleaning, etc. He really tried, but meals became pickups from restaurants.”
As the disease progressed, her mother changed. “Mom started having bathroom accidents and asking repetitive questions,” Nunn says.
Her personality changed too. “She was initially an introvert but became more of an extrovert who spoke her mind in love,” says Nunn, who also changed. “I became a fierce protector and advocate for my mom.”
And when her father died in 2020, Nunn became her mother’s chief caregiver. “Mom came to live with my family and I for 16 months, until she needed more care than I could give her,” she says. “I wasn’t able to care for her full time, care for two kids at home, homeschool them and be a full-time wife.”
Putting her mom in a skilled nursing home was hard but necessary, Nunn says. “I experienced so much guilt but knew that placing her in a facility where she would have access to therapy would be helpful,” she says.
In a real sense, the daughter became the mother in terms of care. “But the respect I had for her as my mom never dwindled,” Nunn says.
“During her time with dementia, the Lord taught me so much through her,” she adds. “Mom handled the declines that came with dementia with such grace.”
Still, the woman and mother she knew slipped away. “I truly missed opportunities to have meaningful conversations with my mom,” Nunn says.
As she cared for her mom amid her decline, Nunn found comfort in daily walks — “a great way to relieve stress,” she says — and in her faith. “I talked to God and read the Bible daily,” Nunn says.
“I knew I needed his strength and I couldn’t be all that mom needed me to be without him.”
Nunn also took part in online grief counseling. “I started this after my dad passed away and I began caring for mom,” she says. “I had godly friends from my church who prayed for me, listened to me and helped me care for mom to give me a break.”
Nunn is grateful too for the support she received from her husband and children. “My husband treated and loved my mom like his own,” she says. “He also took over household chores so I could spend time with mom. He was my eyes and kept me accountable to eat well, continue to exercise and seek out help when I needed it.”
Caring for someone with Alzheimer’s is a labor of love, Nunn says. “It’s hard and emotional, but so worth it,” she says. “Cherish every day.”
Nunn has this advice for caregivers of dementia sufferers. “Make life as normal as possible for them because change is hard for someone with dementia,” she says. “Hug them and express your love to them. They can still hear and feel.”
In the nursing home, Nunn decorated her mom’s room much like her room back home.
“I took her to get her nails done, kept her dressed in the best clothes — if you look good, you feel good — took her out to get ice cream, pushed her in her wheel chair outside every day to get her into the sunshine and took her to church almost every week,” she says.
At church, her mother was much like her old self, Nunn says. “Taking my mom to church gave me back my mom for a few hours each week,” she says. “She could enter the church confused, but when the worship music started and the preacher preached, it was like the Holy Spirit made the confusion dissipate and mom was present. It was so cool to watch.”
For anyone starting the caregiver journey, Nunn has plenty of advice. “Ask for help early on,” she says. “Take pictures with your loved one as much as possible, record their voice in videos, have your loved one write letters to their children, grandchildren, friends before they are unable to express themselves.”
Though dementia eventually claimed her mother’s memory, Nunn says she never forgot her husband, Don Dixon, and her Savior, Jesus Christ. “She talked about dad frequently and told others about her love for Jesus,” she says.
And that’s how she hopes people will remember her mom. “She loved Jesus and trusted him completely, even in this diagnosis,” Nunn says. “And she loved her family.”
Craig Olive's niece, Melanie Nunn, and her mother, Brenda Ann Brown Dixon
View the related Press Release from October 31, 2025.
Page last updated on: November 14, 2025