She's a princess, but of course even royalty and riches can't solve everything. So, like anyone caring for a loved one with Alzheimer's disease, Princess Yasmin Aga Khan found out how exhausting the disease can be.
This is the bond the princess shares with other Alzheimer's caregivers, and a reason, she says, that she continues to be a spokeswoman for the national Alzheimer's Association 12 years after her mother's death.Princess Yasmin's mother, actress Rita Hayworth, died in 1987, six years after being diagnosed with Alzheimer's. The princess, whose father Prince Aly Khan was Hayworth's third husband, moved her mother to New York in 1981 so she could help care for her.
Princess Yasmin, who now lives in Park City, is also a spokeswoman for the Utah chapter of the Alzheimer's Association. The group will hold its annual gala, "An Evening to Remember," Friday evening at the Little America Hotel Grand Ballroom.
When Hayworth was first diagnosed, Princess Yasmin had never heard of Alzheimer's. This was before the disease had become the subplot in made-for-TV movies or the subject of magazine features. In fact, it was publicity about Hayworth that suddenly raised awareness about Alzheimer's.
After the diagnosis, Princess Yasmin was contacted by what she calls a "mom-and-pop" support group in New York, whose members began to help her realize that, although there is no cure, there are ways to help manage the disease and ways to survive it as a caregiver.
Unlike many caregivers, the princess could afford to hire a full-time nurse when her mother needed around-the-clock care. Still, she became drained, she says, from worrying all the time about her mother's condition.
Known during the 1940s as the Love Goddess, Hayworth became not only forgetful but increasingly frightened and paranoid as her disease progressed. Eventually, the princess says, she had to soundproof her mother's room.
Her mother's decline was especially difficult because of their relationship. "I was very close to her," she says. The most distressing moment came shortly after the diagnosis, when she and her mother were looking in a mirror together.
"Who are you?" Hayworth asked.
Like other Alzheimer's patients, Hayworth eventually forgot even how to swallow. Princess Yasmin called in a priest to administer last rites, but Hayworth continued to live, and deteriorate, for three more years.
To honor Alzheimer's caregivers, the Utah chapter of the Alzheimer's Association has created an annual award. This year's honoree is former Salt Laker Neil Papiano, who helped care for his mother for 15 years before her death in 1998.
Papiano, who graduated from South High in 1952, is now an attorney in California, where his clients include Elizabeth Taylor, Joan Collins, Cary Grant and Ed McMahon. Papiano has established a scholarship in his mother's name at the University of Utah.
"An Evening to Remember" begins at 6 p.m. with a social hour. The evening also includes music by the Sax Machine and both a live and silent auction. Proceeds from the gala are used to support Alzheimer's research and for statewide programs serving the 25,000 Utah patients of the disease and their caregivers.
For more information about the gala or Alzheimer's disease, contact the association at 596-0308 or 1-800-371-6694.