Reagan, suffering from Alzheimer's, would spend hours cleaning his pool. Secret Service agents replenished the leaves!
When former president Ronald Reagan had just been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, he wrote a poignant and heart-breaking letter announcing that he was “embarking of the journey that will lead me into the sunset of my life.” Even the year before he passed away however, Reagan was still physically strong enough to rake leaves from his family pool. However, even this became tragic.
He would go hours on end raking the leaves without realizing that they were being replenished by Secret Service men who had some to “visit” him. In 2001, his wife decided that she would no longer let people see her husband. In fact, even she could no longer reach him. “I think Ronnie would want people to remember him as he was,” she said.
