Jim Mangi never thought he’d be living out the later parts of the plot of Nicholas Sparks’ fictional “The Notebook,” but he is grateful he can stay a block from the Saline dementia treatment center near his wife, Kathleen, who is struggling to remember the life they shared.
Now at age 73, Kathleen Mangi lives in a Memory Support Center, where she and Jim spend every afternoon and some evenings together on her journey through early-onset Alzheimer’s disease. It’s been like this for 14 years.