Ailing Reagan unable to recognise relatives
Former US President Ronald Reagan can no longer speak, feed himself or recognise his own wife and children.
An insight into the sad final days of Reagan, who has Alzheimer’s disease, was given by his eldest son Michael and daughter Patti Davis.
His wife Nancy has barely left his side during the last decade while his condition has deteriorated.
Ms Davis wrote in People magazine: “People often ask me how my father is doing.
“They want to know if he still recognises me, if he still recognises any of us.
“It makes me realise that my mother and I have been so protective of his condition since he became ill – almost a decade now – that it has allowed people to imagine he is still talking, still walking, still able to stumble into a moment of clarity.
“But it would be a disservice to every family who has an Alzheimer’s victim in their embrace to say any of that is true, and I don’t believe my father would want us to lie.”
Reagan, 92, is confined to a hospital bed or a wheelchair. His wife, fiercely protective of his dignity, forbids friends from visiting.
Although she has the support of doctors, nurses and housekeepers, the former First Lady oversees her husband’s care, despite the effect it has on her own health.
Her former aide Sheila Tate told the magazine: “She lives with it every day. She doesn’t complain, but she’s sad. You can hear it in her voice.”
Reagan’s illness has reunited his family in recent years.
Ms Davis wrote a scathing, thinly-veiled fictional account of the family before reconciling with them two years ago.
She said she believed the family’s reunion was a source of strength to her father.
“I think it’s the tenacity of his soul he just isn’t ready to leave his reunited family,” she wrote.
Michael Reagan said his father did not even know it was Christmas.
“We haven’t been getting together as a family lately, only because of Dad. He doesn’t know it’s Christmas,” he said.
The Reagan family was recently at the centre of a battle with television network CBS, which eventually cancelled a mini-series about Reagan’s time in office.
The show caused a storm when details of the script leaked.
Reagan, played by James Brolin, husband of singer and Democratic activist Barbra Streisand, was shown calling Aids sufferers “sinners”.
Mrs Reagan was portrayed as a control freak obsessed with astrology.
During the row a friend of the former First Lady, TV host and entrepreneur Merv Griffin, said: “Here is a man who is on his deathbed.
“He’s in the last stages of Alzheimer’s with a woman who has been sitting by the bedside there holding his hand for nine years. They can’t fight back.”
The Reagan edition of People magazine is out tomorrow.
