Parenting UP! Caregiving adventures with comedian J Smiles

Beyond the Actor: Why Brandon Claybon is Passionate about Alzheimer’s Advocacy

• J Smiles • Season 6 • Episode 13

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Parenting Up Family! Tune in for a special episode during National Family Caregivers Month! We are usually bi-weekly, but thanks to the Alzheimer's Association of Georgia, we are releasing this bonus episode this month! 

In this episode, Actor Brandon Claybon joins us to unpack the shift that happens when family members forget your name and start losing their memory, with honesty and heart. He speaks with us about how Alzheimer’s touched both sides of his family, what he learned as a ten-year-old watching elders change, and why his purpose goes far beyond the screen. Brandon also talks about carrying light for his community, the accountability that keeps him grounded, and the practical ways a tight-knit family can share care without losing dignity in the process.

We also explore the grief of lost recipes and why recording family culture is important. Brandon shares how he protects his energy with rest and travel, and why intuition can save caregivers time, pain, and frustration.

For teens and young adults stepping in to help, there’s clear guidance here: tune in for more. You may also watch the visual version on Youtube.com/@parentingup.

If this resonates, subscribe, leave a review, and share it with someone who needs a village today. Your support helps amplify Alzheimer’s awareness, fuel research, and keep these stories—and solutions—within reach.

To join the fight against Alzheimer's, visit alz.org/georgia

Executive Producer/Host: J Smiles Comedy

Producer: Mia Hall

Editor: Annelise Udoye 

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"Alzheimer's is heavy but we ain't gotta be!"
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SPEAKER_01:

How have you balanced your professional responsibilities, requirements, desires, passions, things that you maybe haven't even done yet, with finding space and time to care for family members and to advocate for Alzheimer's.

SPEAKER_03:

To be honest with you, I've always been this person in my family. It's not just because of Beyond the Gates or the team of Grey's Anatomy.

SPEAKER_01:

I hear that and it's more too. I'm gonna tell y'all that again. That's so casually. You know what I mean? I'm over here saying I casually made it to Starbucks this morning. You know what I mean? And the brother drops down, well, just uh hit after it. Hit after it.

SPEAKER_03:

You move or be moved. And so for me, I don't want to be moved. That's like, because when he moves me, I was like, you know what? Lord, forget me. Uh but you get it, you know what it is, you recognize it, and then go ahead, press on.

SPEAKER_01:

Parenting up Caregiving Adventures with comedian Jay Smiles. It's the intense journey of unexpectedly being fully responsible for my mama. For over a decade, I've been chipping away at the unknown, advocating for her, and pushing all time of awareness on anyone and anything with a heartbeat. Caregiver Newbie, OG, and village members just willing to prop up with Caregiver. You are in the right place.

SPEAKER_00:

Hi, this is Z. I hope you enjoy my daughter's podcast. Is that okay?

SPEAKER_01:

Today's supporter shout out comes from YouTube. Nicole Houston Johnson 8405. You did it! It is all capitalized, and it's three exclamation points. Thank you so much. Whatever it is we do is only possible because of our global care village. It is a big deal that you all have continued to take this journey with me and my team. I don't have enough gratitude to share. If you would like to be the recipient of a supporter shout out, you know what to do. Go to YouTube, leave a review, go to Apple's Podcast, leave a review, leave a comment, share it with somebody.

SPEAKER_02:

Y'all want to do it.

SPEAKER_01:

Today's episode, Beyond the Actor, why Brandon Claybon is passionate about Alzheimer's advocacy. What's up, fam? It's your girl Jay Smiles. And once again, you know what I mean? It's like, ah, the universe keeps blessing me. I think maybe they're like, hey, if you gotta put up with your mama having Alzheimer's, what we're gonna do is keep getting better and better and better guests. All right, I'll take it. I wish my mom didn't have the disease, but give me something. You know what I mean? And today is just that instance. You always hear, hey, it's only women doing this. Men are not involved as being family caregivers. Uh not. We're about to put that in the trash for once and for all. You've seen him on a bunch of stuff, all right? But what I know people like the most is Beyond the Gate. Listen, Zatima, yes. Beyond the Gates, whoo, the number of people who are trying to find this man somewhere is probably illegal, but right now I got it, okay? Brandon Clavon. How you doing, Brandon?

SPEAKER_03:

I'm doing great, great. Thanks so much for having me.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you for being here. And to have a platform like you have, and then to choose to advocate for something outside of your profession is commendable, and thank you.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, um, once again, thank you for having me. I um I'm a person that believes that your purpose in life is not always what you do. And of course, I'm an actor. Uh, that's what I do, but I think my purpose in life is to uplift, encourage, um, educate, uh, and entertain others. So I'm just happy to be here.

SPEAKER_01:

You also must drink copious amounts of water because your skin is flawless. So I don't know. But they got to do the acting. But I'm gonna try to figure out how to get his water regimen and I'm gonna let y'all in on it. So here at the Parenting Up Podcast, we elevate and support family caregivers. Probably many of your fans don't know how connected you have been to the world of dementia, to Alzheimer's specifically, and how it has impacted your life. Share with us the family members who have been diagnosed with the disease. Let us know are they alive, not alive.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, the disease um runs on both sides of my family. From my grandmother to my aunt, um, a cousin. Um it's been with me throughout my life, um, until this moment here. So I feel like I've been touched by the disease, and I feel like since there isn't a cure, um, we need to continue to advocate, um, tell people about it, um, and find a cure. I I think uh at some point in my lifetime, I hope to see it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes. So what he's also saying, fam, is that means donate, right? There's gonna be, we're gonna have links and buttons everywhere. So find a cure is code for we need money. Cure comes with research and trials, and we'll get more into that. For sure. How old were you when the first person in your family that you were that you knew of uh actually was starting to have problems or showed signs?

SPEAKER_03:

10, 10 years old. Whoa. Um and my gr grandmother um called me by my dad's name. And at the time I I didn't understand. Um, but my father was letting me know no, this happens when you get older, but that necessarily wasn't the case. He was just trying to explain it in a way that um I could grasp.

SPEAKER_01:

That's right.

SPEAKER_03:

Um but that was difficult for me because I was one of her favorite grandchildren, you know. She also made uh sweet potato pies for me, like um throughout the year. Okay, and she wouldn't let anyone else touch these pies until I made it to the house, and it's like, no, that's that's Brema's Pie. That was my nickname. Brema or Bam Bam, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, Brema and Bam Bam. So listen, on the Parents and Out Podcasts, you always get those juicy bits. Okay, okay. Where did you grow up?

SPEAKER_03:

I grew up in a small town called Oakland, Tennessee, which is 15, 20 minutes outside of Memphis, Tennessee.

SPEAKER_01:

All right.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So it's not West Side, it's just Tennessee. No, I'm I'm joking on being California.

SPEAKER_03:

Oh no. No, but but I have lived in Los Angeles for the past 14 years. So a little west side in me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, that's right. That's right, that's right, from the acting, of course. That makes perfect sense. At 10, that's pretty heavy. And I know that we are currently as a system of family caregivers and advocates really trying to let adults know hey, you can't um expect children to not see and feel, right? You 10 years old, even if you didn't know what was happening, you could tell grandmama's not quite the same. And there's so many um adults who believe, well, there that's just a child, he's just a child, we're not gonna bog him down, he wouldn't understand, we're just gonna say grandmama doesn't feel well. But the number of people I've interviewed, Brandon, who actually have carried that into their teenage years, into their early adult years, thinking, could I have done something differently? Why didn't they tell me more? Did you experience any of that?

SPEAKER_03:

I did. Um, because you know, we look at children as if they don't see or they don't feel. Um, but that's not the truth of the situation. Um I've learned throughout the years that I'm an empath, and so I take on the feelings and energy of everyone that I come in contact with. As a child, I didn't understand that. Um, but I get it. I get it a lot more now because I knew something was wrong even back then when my father wouldn't explain it to me. Um I could just feel in his in his eyes, or seeing my aunt, uh, she was the caregiver for my grandmother, just seeing how things made her feel when my grandmother would forget, or just she just wouldn't know, or call her by a different name. Um, and it stuck with me. Uh, and I knew that I wanted to be an advocate for um Alzheimer's awareness. And um, yeah, and that's that's why I'm here.

SPEAKER_01:

I love it. I love it. Uh, fam, for you all to recognize those who are not on video and you're listening, it is amazing to sit with someone who has been a part of the family caregiver village. And so I'm smiling really big when I say this for decades. The world has not always acknowledged the secondary and tertiary levels of family caregiving. So children may be asked, hey, just go sit with grandmama for an hour until your parents get off work. Well, in that one hour, that child is a caregiver. Because they're responsible to call 911 or to find the pills or to keep grandmama from walking outside. But so often the adults who say, well, just go sit with grandmama, won't recognize this child is the caregiver. So what I am asking anyone listening or watching is to recognize that when those children become a part of the care process, please allow them to get uh some it may it may be support, but I know the All-Times Association actually has a um support system for young people who they don't know what to say, they don't even know what to ask, they don't even know how to say, I don't feel right, I'm scared, I'm nervous. What if somebody comes to the house and asks to get in and grandmama wants to leave? I'm 10 years old. I don't know how to make grandmama stay in the house. You know? So that is something that uh I appreciate you sharing, sharing that with us. Um with your cousin and your aunt. Now, was this the aunt, the aunt that uh eventually had Alzheimer's? Is this the one who also cared for your grandmother?

SPEAKER_03:

Uh yes, it is. Um and I I should say that her siblings were involved as well. So, of course, my dad helped. Um, it was actually in his house that she was staying. Um my other aunt, she helped as well. Um it it takes a village, yes, you really to come together. Like the entire family is affected. I don't care if you're 99 years old or you're one. Everyone is affected in the family. And um it's a blessing to see family come together uh for a loved one like that as well. So that's how I knew I was blessed with great families on both sides, my mom and dad. Yes. Um, it's a tight knit, you know, and we come together for each other, for sure.

SPEAKER_01:

That doesn't always happen.

SPEAKER_03:

I and I understand.

SPEAKER_01:

That doesn't always happen at all. As you observed your elders, right? So you're saying like one and two generations above you coming together, connecting, to care for whoever had Alzheimer's at the time. What did you see them doing that you say, wow, that really worked? Part of their strategy, or how they divvied up the responsibilities.

SPEAKER_03:

It's quite interesting that you asked that. So sometimes um adults try to get you to do something, they try to tell you what to do. So you have to think like they're talking to their parent. And telling a parent what to do, it's kind of difficult at times. I don't care if you have Alzheimer's or not. So my grandmother's like, no, I'm not doing that. So it's kind of like I just saw them um, you know, basically easing their way into doing things. I'm not gonna tell you exactly, but you might like to do this. Or would you like to, you know, eat this cantaloupe? Or um, would you like to have a banana? It's it's kind of like asking over and over again, basically getting on their nerves. It's like, fine, just give it to me.

unknown:

That's right.

SPEAKER_03:

Instead of um really demanding, because sometimes that goes arrive. It's like, no, who are you talking to? You you're not my, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

That's I'm the mama.

SPEAKER_03:

Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

I've gotten that several times. She remembers she's the mama.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. At the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, and I am not the mama, and I am not in charge. Exactly. And she has let my mother, uh Zeti, who we're approaching year 14 right now, with uh Alzheimer's, she will let me and the caregivers know. So there's a caregiver with her right now, and there are times when they say, Well, well, you know, please, to use your reference, eat this cantaloupe. I don't want the cantaloupe. Please eat the cantaloupe. I don't want the cantaloupe. I don't like cantaloupe. Now, mind you, my mama loves cantaloupe, okay? But that day she doesn't want to love it. So the best part is when the caregivers tell me, I told her, well, Jay said, please eat the cantaloupe. And then she responds, she retorts, Jay, Jay can't tell me what to do. She is my child. I'm like, dang, oh, but cantaloupe? Are we are we really about to battle over this mama? But it happens because, like you said, once the Alzheimer's is attack attacks the brain, it's not the same family member anymore.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Um, did most of your family members live in the same city, same area? Same city, okay.

SPEAKER_03:

Same area. Uh, most of them do. Um, and once again, I didn't know how much of a blessing this was until you go to school as a kid and you're talking to other friends about their families, and they tell you, oh, my family lives in Montana and in Wisconsin. And I'm like, what?

SPEAKER_01:

What? Like, who was that? Those are strangers that live that far away.

SPEAKER_03:

Exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Understood, understood. Um, as you um your grand uh your grandmother, I believe, is not correct. What changes did you see um within yourself as well as your family members who had offered care to her when she passed? I'm asking this specifically because um families are often torn. In one way you are so happy they're no longer suffering, but because there were so many additional intimate moments, right, then there becomes this big void and gap because you're like, hey, I was with her every day, or I I was the one who was responsible to shampoo her hair. And there's sometimes we found here at the Panting Up Community, that there's almost like uh a sense of purpose that's now vanished.

SPEAKER_03:

Of course, you spend a lot of time and energy with um the loved one. Um once that once that person is no longer with us, I think what I saw the most was acknowledgement of the memories in every moment that you had, even in the disease, because sometimes it's just a light bulb, something just happens, and guess what? They're on. You know, they're on today. You know, you start knocking, they was like, Yeah, I'm here. That's right. I'm I'm here. What's up? Um I think it was just moments we we'll sit down and um like family gatherings and we talk about those moments. Okay. We talk about how my cousin um would cook us cheesecakes every holiday. Like he was really, really good at recipes. Um, and of course, um with dementia, that all changed and he couldn't remember it, and it was upsetting because we didn't get any of the recipes before. And it was not like it was written down or anything. And so my mom, she, you know, I think she tried. Um, but it it would, it was never the same. So we'd always have the memories, and just to talk about them, that took up space and that energy was still there, and we we knew they're right around the corner, they're right over our shoulder.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, I'm gonna take this as a moment of personal privilege. Fam, get the recipes. I don't have I don't even want to name the recipes I don't have for my grandmother. But the point is, even if you have a person who doesn't appear to be sick at this time, the next family gathering where you are there, or you could just ask them, hey, just put the cell phone on record. You don't even have to talk. We'll just watch what are you adding? Why are you adding bacon soda to a pork chop? No, and you because they do things that you're like, I would have that's not going to be on anything on Google. Right. But to get those recipes or stories, that's a part of how the culture, whatever your culture is, how it not only uh survives but thrives.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And I know I I uh really lament the things that I don't have from my grandparents, um, for my dad for that matter, things that they were just really, really good at. And they had uh kind of uncovered a secret or two. And I didn't get the secrets, you know. I'm like, I messed around and let you go without getting your secrets. So that I got to go figure this thing out from scratch.

SPEAKER_03:

But in the black family, all the secrets, we couldn't keep up with the mahogany.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I don't want all to be quite honest, Brandon. So I don't, please don't tell me. And if you tell me, I'm putting my fingers in my ears, I ain't listening. Also, for anybody who is not watching video, I need to say that these Jordans that he has on, I just look down and laughed. They so clean. Cut it out. They so clean, they so clean, and he probably didn't buy them yesterday, which just means that this brother is clean. I like a cleanness. I like a cleanness, I like a cleanness.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, what did the old people say? Cleanliness is next to godliness.

SPEAKER_01:

That is what they say.

SPEAKER_03:

That's what they say.

SPEAKER_01:

So well, his shoes are godlike. I don't know about the rest of them. I'm not making this an intimate podcast. I'm just saying, his shoes is going to heaven. Um as you have uh ascended in the world of acting, you have had a very successful career, and we wish you continued success for sure. Thank you. How have you balanced your professional responsibilities, requirements, desires, passions, things that you maybe haven't even done yet, with finding space and time to care for family members and to advocate for uh Alzheimer's?

SPEAKER_03:

To be honest with you, I'm still learning. I'm still learning how to balance everything. I'm a Libra, and so balance is important, um, for sure. Um, but I think it's a great team. It's having a great team, um, having a great family that checks in and, you know, it's like, hey, they hold me accountable. Okay. Um, and I know the responsibility that's on my shoulders, you know. I've I've always been this person in my family. It's not just because of Beyond the Gates or Zatima or Grey's Anatomy.

SPEAKER_01:

I hear that, and there's some more too. I'm gonna tell y'all that again. But they so casually, you know what I mean? I'm over here saying I casually made it to Starbucks this morning, you know what I mean? And then brother drops down. Well, just uh hit after hit after hit after hit, keep going.

SPEAKER_03:

But but I've always been this person. Um, and I know the light that I carry and I know the responsibility that I have for my family members and my community.

SPEAKER_01:

So boom.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

How do you care for yourself?

SPEAKER_03:

I like to vacation a lot. So um I just got back from New Orleans uh for my birthday, and I ate everything in sight from shrimp po boys to um uh what else did I have? Gambo and beignets and etuffe. I said no to nothing. Yeah. So now I'm going on a diet.

unknown:

That's okay.

SPEAKER_01:

You look you that you went hard and now you're gonna go hard getting back into the balance. Like what the Libra needs. I uh my maternal grandmother's originally from New Orleans, so I think I feel I grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, but New Orleans it feels like a second home because so many of my summers were spent there um hanging out with cousins and great-grandparents. And if you think grandparents, okay, family, if you think grandparents spoil you, if you have the honor and the privilege of having a great grandparent alive as you come of age, that is, it probably is ridiculous. Probably whatever part of me is rotten, it started with my mama's grandmama, mama T down in the seventh ward in New Orleans. So all of the things you just mentioned, eating, uh, now my mouth is extra watering. I got to make sure that I don't start doing spit bubbles because that was what I had every day when I was down there.

SPEAKER_03:

You know, I didn't Now I know you're an empath as well. I am. Okay, so now we're in New Orleans, and everybody kept asking me about the witches and warlocks and the vampires. I told them, I said, I knew who they were. I said, but um, I was at the height of my power, so I was like, I'm okay.

unknown:

Okay, that's right. That's right.

SPEAKER_01:

You going to them, you say, Oh no, thank you.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And you keep walking.

SPEAKER_03:

You keep walking.

SPEAKER_01:

Some of them might be in your family. You just don't spend the night at their houses.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Well, I don't. I can't tell you what everybody does, but I don't. Uh I have found that were it not for intuition, I already wouldn't be here.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah. Um God given.

SPEAKER_01:

And if even if my physical body would be here, the spirit of who I am, the strength, the resilience that has uh been a part of my journey comes from intuition, which is the Holy Spirit. Which is it's the part of me that defies all logic, right? And in human reason and rationale. And I'm grateful for it. And it really did start with my New Orleanian side. My grandmother, who would my grandfather's a good old Southern Baptist Alabama boy, and he's like, you he needed to see it and experience it to believe it. And my my grandmother, his wife, thought that was the most idiotic thing.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

She would tell him, and all of us, hey, experience is not the best teacher, but a fool will learn no other way. Now, I was probably up to last week before I fully understood all the parts of that phrase. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03:

You have to go through it on your own.

SPEAKER_01:

You don't have to always, sometimes you ain't gotta go through it. Sometimes if I watch you go through it, that's good for me, Brandon. I'm like, you know what? If it didn't work for Brandon, yeah. I'm gonna go and say it probably won't work for me.

SPEAKER_03:

But you know, you all people aren't like that.

SPEAKER_01:

I know, but I'm I'm leaning into it more. Yeah, I'm leaning into that.

SPEAKER_03:

But it was something you you told me earlier. Um you were moved to um become a comedian. Yes. Um, but you said the spirit told you it's time to move. And I said, you move or be moved. And so for me, I I don't want to be moved. I was like, because when he moves me, I was like, you know what, Lord forgive me. Yeah. But you get it, you know what it is, you recognize it, and then go ahead, press on.

SPEAKER_01:

You're absolutely right. It is much more, it is more difficult when you are moved versus if you move.

SPEAKER_03:

For sure.

SPEAKER_01:

Because um, whatever obstacles and resistance that I have tried to give to the Holy Spirit, it doesn't work. And then now I just got uh I'm out of breath and I got bruises and scrapes and bad memories. And I wasted time. So uh that is a major part I believe in being a family caregiver is going with the flow and don't resist it. So many people believe in the in the initial stages that their loved one, their family member, the person they're caring for, is choosing to forget or not working hard enough to remember.

SPEAKER_03:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And then they so they may be providing care, but they're providing care with a little bit of a grain of salt in their spirit or a little bit of frustration.

SPEAKER_02:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Because it's like, well, you you knew this two hours ago. How is it possible that you don't know it now? And I think a part of the advocacy and awareness is that the disease is just that tricky. It is just that fleeting. They could remember everything and five minutes later not know where they are. And that is real. That is an experience that if you don't have the disease, you can't relate. And we have yet to have the first person as an Alzheimer's survivor, so we don't have anybody who could tell us on the other side what the experience was like. Um, did you have personal experiences with any of your uh loved ones who had the disease, either forgetting who you were or trying to leave the house or something that was really jarring in your spirit?

SPEAKER_03:

Um yes, forgetting who they were, um trying to leave uh out of the room, uh not being fully dressed, because at this time, you know, they forgot how to uh put clothes on, uh, how to bathe themselves. Um and this is me seeing this at a young age. And it shook me. It shook me, uh, especially uh during that time because I didn't fully understand what was happening, but I just knew that my grandmother or my aunt or my cousin, they just weren't the same as before. And I think I had that level of uh frustration as well. It's like what you know, it was just you know, last week when I saw you, you know. Um, and I I get that and I I understand it, but I would say to anyone, um, patience. Patience with your loved ones. You know how much they loved and cared for you. That's how much love and care um you have to give back.

SPEAKER_01:

So oh wow, this has been an amazing conversation. Um I again cannot uh show enough gratitude on behalf of the parenting up family and family caregivers for you to choose. I don't want to highlight it, choose to be an advocate. Because everyone who is a family caregiver, whether you are the person actually putting the pill in the um Alzheimer's sufferer's mouth, or you the one writing the check for the pills, or you're just calling the family caregiver to say, hey, are you okay? I'm gonna send you a gift card. There are so many layers to what this village needs to be. And uh for you to choose, because all of us choose to be family caregivers, and nobody, nobody, and we don't want it. Like because you don't want it to, you don't want to be needed. That's what I try to tell people. I don't want my mother to need me in this way. Of course I love her, and I'll do anything in the world, but I sure wish it was something else that she needed me to do for her.

SPEAKER_03:

Um so as we And you know she wouldn't want that as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Correct.

SPEAKER_03:

You know.

SPEAKER_01:

At all. Yeah. Anyone, if you met my mom for five minutes, this is not at all what she wants. As a matter of fact, she actually would do things to not get Alzheimer's, Brandon. Can you believe that? The irony of it. She was the first person in our family to have this disease. Normally, I mean, her dad had it, but he had a lot of other stuff going on. And he was in his late 80s, okay? When it came, so they were like, Yeah, he was probably gonna die from round robin. Let's pick the short straw. You know what I mean? He had a number. But so Alzheimer's had not been a part of our family on either side. One side was strokes and heart attacks, the other side was cancer. Neither happened to my mom. And she actually would do like uh sudoku puzzles, and I remember her saying, I read something, Jay, that you need to uh brush your teeth with your non-dominant hand three times a week to say so she was reading these things in her late 40s, early 50s, almost as a premonition. I don't know. I was like, what? Mama Alzheimer's. And the disease got her, it attacked her. I will admit, and I'm going to ask you this, only answer if you feel comfortable, that I have my own trepidations around will I acquire the this this disease since it was my mom? And and what part of my genealogy is like hers, what part of my lifestyle is like hers. So I have concerns. Do you have any of those concerns because of your family history?

SPEAKER_03:

Of course I do. And not just for myself, but for my parents. It's on both sides of my family, so I think about them all the time. You know?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, yeah. I got it. I got it. Give us a bit of hope and positivity for people who are family caregivers, especially if they are younger, let's say teenagers, early 20s, and there's an uncle or a grandparent, or maybe a parent who is starting to show signs and they're needing to stop by a little more, go to the grocery store, maybe do their laundry. What can you suggest that can keep them fortified and energized at such a young age when they're needing to kind of step in and help out?

SPEAKER_03:

Um, well, definitely at a young age, I would tell all the kids out there time is so expensive. And you don't know it now because you're so young, but cherish your moments that you have with your loved ones now. Every small moment you have, if even if you could just have breakfast with a parent or a grandparent, um really be present, put the phone down and just be right there with your loved ones. That's the most important thing I could tell anyone.

SPEAKER_01:

Put the phone down. Did you hear that? Brandon Bam Bam said, put the phone down. That's a whole word. Yeah. And this man, you know, arguably, PR media, social media, that's his job, that's his job. That helps his career be more long-lasting. But in those moments, he's like, uh-uh-uh-uh-uh. Not right now.

SPEAKER_03:

Not this time.

SPEAKER_01:

Not at this time.

SPEAKER_03:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Thank you so much for sharing that.

SPEAKER_03:

No, thank you for having me. Yes.

SPEAKER_01:

Now, let everybody know about any uh about your projects that are current, maybe something that hadn't been announced yet, but it's not under contractual obligation, and you ain't you can tell us, uh, or also everywhere they can find you.

SPEAKER_03:

Well, guys, you can find me um Monday through Friday on Beyond the Gates on CBS, 2 p.m. Eastern, 1 p.m. Central. Um, also, you can find me on all social media. It's just my name, Brandon Claybon. And yeah, uh, hope to see you guys around and talk to you soon and connect. And um, thanks for listening to us.

SPEAKER_01:

Fantastic. That's a wrap. The snuggle ups. Number one. Y'all, we have to do better by our kids. The kids who are in the family, the neighborhood kids that actually come in and sit with adults who have dementia, Alzheimer's Parkinson, even if it's cancer. I know it's the Parents of Up Podcast, and we focus on Alzheimer's, but our kids are being really smushed emotionally and psychologically because they don't know what's happening, but they see the change occurring in front of them. So don't discount what they need. You know, maybe there's a support group at an Alzheimer's Association chapter near you. Maybe you can find something if you talk to um the loved ones' doctor, their neurologist, their primary care physician, they may have suggestions. They're books that help children understand what's happening and their place in it. Because this is what you need to know. They are caregivers. If they have the help at all, then they are also a caregiver. And they deserve a way to know that they are also supported. Number two, if you are somebody under 25 years old, please do everything you can to take advantage of the time that you have with people who are older than you. It might be a grandparent, it could be a teacher, but you don't know what those conversations could mean later. And when you look back over life, regret is the one thing you really don't want to have. Because you can't get rid of it, you can't erase it, you can't uh work yourself out of it, and ain't enough money to get rid of regret. The big thing is be ten toes down, fully experienced and enjoy wherever you are in that moment with those individuals. Maybe they're just a little bit older than you, they might be an older cousin, but you don't know how that will impact you and get you prepared for things later in life, like caregiving. They don't have caregiving school yet, at least not that I know about. Number three, this is to all my existing family caregivers. Yes, this shit is hard, but there are more and more people who are becoming aware of our flight, of our journey, of our struggle. So don't lose heart. Don't give up. Take the breaks. Brandon said he made sure that he gets vacation. What is the thing that you know you got to get and you got to do to stay psychologically whole, to stay physically healthy, to stay well. What is it that you have to do? Because we can't get through this without you. Yes, we want a cure, we want research, but until then, it's family caregivers that are making this thing work. Alright? So take care of you. Thank you for tuning in. I mean, really, really, really thank you so very much for tuning in. Whether you're watching this on YouTube or if you're listening on your favorite podcast audio platform. Either way, wherever you are, subscribe. Come back. That's the way you're gonna know when we do something next. Y'all know how it is. I'm Jay Smiles. I might just drop something hot in the middle of the night.