My mom is on the couch.

She does this all day, every day. Sits and stares with that cloudy look of indifference that snares most Alzheimer's patients. Every day it's the same dank living room with the curtains closed tight like a casket, a blanket pulled over her bent knees.

We have to remind her every so often that she's thirsty or hungry. Sometimes she forgets that she has to go to the restroom.

Last week I tried to get her out of the house while I took the dog for a walk. It was a sunny and crisp day, and I told my mother the same thing she once told me: "The fresh air will do you good."

We didn't go far - almost all the way down the very short street - but the entire walk was a struggle. No matter how slowly I moved, my mom was always five or 10 steps behind. Sometimes she simply stopped dead.

At one point, I tried to figure out the best way to sling her overweight frame over my back. I was certain I would have to carry her.

After an hour, we finally made it back.

Two days later, I was part of Greater Cincinnati's Memory Walk, the major fund-raiser of the Alzheimer's Association.

The 5K took about 3,000 of us through Sawyer Point, across the Taylor Southgate Bridge, around Newport streets and back across the Ohio River via the Purple People Bridge.

There were purple and white balloons everywhere. Booths offered information about long-term care facilities, estate planning and more. There was food and music. Everybody was singing and talking and smiling.

And I was angry.

It's not the fault of the Alzheimer's Association. The group put on a great event, which raises hundreds of thousands of dollars for local education and support programs, as well as national research initiatives.

I also couldn't be upset at the people I walked with, the Young Professionals of the Alzheimer's Association. They're trying to heighten awareness about the Alzheimer's Association and the disease, as well as raise money to support the association's mission. Their next event is the Totally 80s Homecoming Dance, which will run 8 p.m. to midnight Oct. 16 at the Carnegie Center of Columbia-Tusculum.

I was mad because the whole event was too pretty, like a birthday present with flawless silver paper and precisely folded corners and perfectly looping ribbons. And underneath it all is an ugly, horrible disease.

Because of Alzheimer's, my once strong, beautiful mother walks out of the bathroom with her pants around her ankles because she doesn't remember how to pull them up.

Because of Alzheimer's, my mother, who used to spend at least an hour a day on her meticulous hairstyle and makeup, smells oily and musty because she doesn't remember how to bathe herself.

And now, because of Alzheimer's, my mother has a slow and stumbling gait because she can't remember how to put one foot in front of the other.

Nothing made that more clear than the Memory Walk.

As the crowd made long strides across the Purple People Bridge, a banner slung across the span proclaimed, "Small steps make a big difference."

At home, my mother was on the couch.

To make a donation to the Alzheimer's Association, visit www.alz.org/grtrcinc or call (513) 721-4284. For information about the Young Professionals of the Alzheimer's Association, visit www.ypalz.org.

E-mail mdowns@enquirer.com