Last February we learned the actor was Bruce Willis had frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
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Here are six confidential testimonies from her daughter Tallulah in her essay published in the magazine on Wednesday Fashion:
“I knew for a long time that something was wrong”
Tallulah Willis admits she knew her father was unwell long before the diagnosis. “It started with a kind of vague callousness that the family blamed on the ‘Hollywood’ hearing loss. [participer à autant de films d’action aurait atteint l’audition de l’acteur]. Later this callousness spread and I sometimes took it personally […] I thought he lost interest in me,” she says.
“I’ve witnessed Bruce’s downfall in recent years with an element of avoidance and denial that I’m not proud of.”
The 29-year-old admits she ignored her father’s decline for a long time because she was too ill to deal with it herself. She had suffered from anorexia nervosa for 4 years, was admitted to a center for the treatment of depression at the age of 25 and was diagnosed with ADHD and borderline personality disorder.
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“I realized I would never live to see this moment: My father is talking about me at my wedding.”
The severity of her father’s illness hit her suddenly while attending a wedding. “The father of the bride gave a moving speech. It was devastating. I left the dining table, went out and cried in the bushes.
“I keep switching between present and past when I talk about Bruce”
“He is, he was, he is, he was. Because I have hope for my father, I’m reluctant to give up,” she says.
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“I saved all his voicemails on a hard drive”
Tallulah Willis collects as many memories as possible of her life with her father by taking “tons of photos” every time she visits his house. “I’m trying to document, to create a file for the day when he will be gone, to remind me of him and of us.”
“I can enjoy this moment, holding my father’s hand and feeling that it’s wonderful.”
Aware the recovery will “probably take a lifetime,” the youngest of the Moore-Willis clan says she’s strong enough now to be there for her dad. “I can give her a bright, sunny energy. He always knows who I am and his eyes light up when I walk into the room.