Who Is Radioman?

“Radioman” has been my Screen name on advrider.com for the past 5 years. The name came from a woman in a leather repair shop that did some work for me adapting a jacket to have an ipod remote on the sleeve. She called me “radioman” when I came to pick up my jacket. This was the same day I registered on advrider. Still chuckling about the name, that is what I used. But over the past few years of my life, engaging in the ADV community has really been great and a place that I have shared my life caring for my wife Chris who had early onset Alzheimer’s disease. So will stick with Radioman.

My name is actually Mark, I am just a guy who loves to ride a motorcycle, and is embarking on a new chapter in my life that I call “Chapter 3”.

As a brief introduction, I will go back and share a bit of the story of my life that got me to start writing this blog. I have found that sharing my life story has been an amazing way to connect to other people especially the motorcycle community, and those that have experienced the painful process of losing a loved on to Alzheimer’s Disease.

My wife Chris and I met in a restaurant in NYC in 1990. It is a love story, that carried us together in amazing ways. When I married my wife, Chris back in 1993, Her family had suffered greatly with a genetic version of Early Onset Alzheimer’s Disease. Her mom had passed away at the age of 53, and her only sister Debbie, was beginning to show the signs of this disease. We knew it was possible for her, but knew that we loved each other and would face our lives together. With her son Jake who was 7 when we married, we settled down and had a great life together. We settled into working on our house, raising Jake, engaging in activities with a passion, traveling , and enjoyed great friendships.

In 2006, I quit my Sales job in the printing /Prepress Industry to be full time with my wife, who had developed the early onset Alzheimer’s. At the time, I knew that it is what we should do. We traveled the US on our BMW touring bike, to visit family and friends. It was a long journey as this disease is a profoundly difficult disease, as the sufferer loses their memory, the ability to carry out any daily functions, and need full time care. I will not go into the whole story about this past 5 years of our lives, but My wife Chris passed away in January due to Alzheimer’s Disease at the age of 54. It was a long goodbye. After she was gone, I realized for the first time in many years I had no real responsibilities, and that my dream of a motorcycling around the world is something that I could actually pursue.

In order to share this new Chapter of my life, I decided to set up this blog. Hope that anyone that reads this will enjoy, engage, comment and ride along as it all develops.

Faith, Hope and Courage,

Mark Donham