The family of “Jungle Jack” Hanna has revealed that the beloved former zookeeper is enduring an “advanced” stage of Alzheimer’s disease, where he doesn’t remember most of his circle of relatives.
“The Jack people knew isn’t here anymore, but pieces of my husband are,” his wife Suzi Hanna told The Columbus Dispatch. “And I’m going to hold onto them for so long as I can.”
Jack’s wife and daughters Kathaleen, Suzanne, and Julie revealed that he now only remembers his wife of 54 years, his dog Brassy, and, occasionally, his eldest daughter Kathaleen.
He has been battling the disease in private since he was diagnosed in 2019.
The 76-year-old resigned from his post as director emeritus of Ohio’s Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Dec. 2020.
“He just stopped remembering who I used to be in all ways. Whether it was in person or by phone, he had no idea I used to be his daughter,” Suzanne told the outlet. “I believe it’s because he didn’t see me as much because I got married so young and I moved away.”
As he continues to battle the disease, Jack’s only sense of normalcy is the each day two-mile walks he takes with Suzi, she notes.
“I need to carry on to those walks so long as I can,” she told the outlet. “I remember the day this all officially began. The day the doctor told us what it was. I’ve just tried to hold on to the little pieces of Jack since then.”
“My husband remains to be in there somewhere,” Suzi went on. “There are still those sweet, tender moments — you realize, pieces of him that made me and the remaining of the world fall in love with him.”
Suzi said that caring for her husband has been “real hard some days, but he took care of me all those years, and so it’s my turn to maintain him.”
Elsewhere, Jack’s eldest daughter Kathaleen said they decided to share such intimate details of her dad’s condition in a desperate bid to assist others coping with the identical.
“If this helps even one other family, it’s greater than value sharing dad’s story,” Kathaleen said. “He spent a lifetime helping everyone he could. He won’t ever comprehend it or understand it, but he remains to be doing it now.”
“He only retired as a result of the Alzheimer’s,” she added. “He was embarrassed by it. He lived in fear the general public would discover.”
Kathaleen said her dad “would have worked until the day he died.”
And despite the increasing difficulty in coping with Jack’s declining health, Suzi told the outlet that she will not be trying to hire help.
“I just want it to be your dad and I for so long as I can,” she said to her daughters. “The river, the sun, Brassy, our walks. That’s what we have now left.”
Hanna’s daughters first revealed their father’s diagnosis in a letter shared by the Columbus Zoo in April 2021.
“His condition has progressed much faster in the previous few months than any of us could have anticipated,” they wrote on the time. “Sadly, Dad isn’t any longer in a position to take part in public life as he used to, where people all around the world watched, learned, and laughed alongside him.”
