Angie & Jim

An Open Letter to Alex Boyeby Jim

Dear Brother Boye,

I wanted to write to you and thank you for your music video Smiles for Life. My mother was recently diagnosed with a rapidly degenerative and terminal neurological disease called Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease. She began by having balance problems followed by losing her short-term memory. Smiles for Life was posted just before she lost the ability to remember new things. She has a special fondness for it because her oldest daughter and son-in-law are featured for just a moment in the video. They’re the couple that does a spin and dip during one of the dance montages. She was so proud of her children and loved the music and the message it conveyed. Multiple times a day she asked us if we’d seen it and wanted to show it to us, having forgotten that we’d seen it already. She liked it so much that we always just watched it again with her.

That was about 2 months ago; in the last couple weeks she has deteriorated to the point that she barely speaks and needs help with everything she does. Every day she gets a little worse. Her time with is us is very short; she will probably not live to see her 62nd birthday at the end of this month. We watch your video each morning because it always brings a smile to her face. It has brought happiness to our mother at a difficult time for our family. We do our best to fill her days with joyful memories and happy moments. It is a very precious gift to us to see her smiles and her laughs. Thank you for contributing to the happiness of our mother. I wanted you to know how much it means to us and how grateful we are.

Sincerely,
James & the rest of
The Hoffman Family