A Visual Representation of Alzheimer's

I remember back when CVS purchased Eckerd, they shut down a number of stores. One store that was on the corner of Jupiter and Plano in Richardson, TX sat empty for I think over a decade.

I remember I would pass by it sometimes on the way to a friend's house who lived in the area 15-20 years ago at night.

What struck me was they had emptied the entire store. All of the signs on the outside had been removed and every single detail of the store had been taken out except for 2 things. The Eckerd Pharmacy sign sitting over the pharmacy area and this little rectangular sign that hung over the front door and read "1 Hr. $6.99 24 exp." referring to the 1 hour photo labs they used to run, and those signs would light up automatically at night while the rest of the store, including the outside of it remained pitch black. It was one of the more eerie things I've ever seen.

To me, this is the perfect visual representation of Alzheimer's. Most of the memories have been destroyed, but there are still two perfectly intact, clear memories still functioning. It's as if the store is struggling to remember its purpose. It knows it had a purpose once and it remembers fragments of what it was but it can't really put it together anymore.

It sat like that I believe until just before the pandemic when a pet supply shop finally moved in (and closed because of COVID).

It was a really cool image though. I took a picture of it one night because it looked so cool.