Nancy Norlander had watched FTD slowly take her husband, Peter, for a long time, but his recent death still feels sudden.

Nancy, who is 56 and lives in Montana, shares her late husband’s journey with FTD in an article published in the Bozeman Daily Chronicle amid the isolating conditions of COVID-19. Peter, who was diagnosed with behavioral variant FTD (bvFTD) in 2011 and had lived in a care facility for the last five years, died in his sleep in April.

An avid bird watcher, Peter is the third member of his family to be afflicted by a genetic mutation that can cause both FTD and ALS – both his late father and sister had ALS. The article describes how Peter’s family, who is unable to connect with Nancy in person due to the pandemic, is grieving from afar as Nancy tries to plan for funeral during a time of increased social isolation.

“Even family members, if they haven’t been self-isolating, I haven’t even gotten hugs from some of them,” Nancy says in the article. “That’s messed up.”

The article, which offers a detailed tribute to a family afflicted by FTD, speaks to the impact of love and loss during extraordinary circumstances. You can read it on the Bozeman Daily Chronicle hemsida.