Oscar-winning actor Gene Hackman, wife found dead in Santa Fe home

[Bogie]

I think some mice carry it more than others... I mean, we had mice and rats in the barns and outbuildings/grain storage facilities when I was growing up, and while we had about 20-something critters who were very happy to play with the funny looking human kittens, they were not totally reliant upon us for sustenance...

[Ben]

I think some mice carry it more than others... I mean, we had mice and rats in the barns and outbuildings/grain storage facilities when I was growing up, and while we had about 20-something critters who were very happy to play with the funny looking human kittens, they were not totally reliant upon us for sustenance...

IIRC, in the US, it is much more prevalent in the dry West.

[K Frame]

They're saying she died first from Hantavirus pulmonary syndrome sometime around the 11th then Gene a week or so later possibly from heart disease and complications caused by Alzheimer's.
My guess is due to the Alzheimers he wandered around not knowing what to do. They're saying he may not even been aware she died.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/entertainment/celebrities/2025/03/07/gene-hackman-cause-of-death-wife/80684790007/

I read that last night. Goddamn but that's even more awful than I could have imagined.

What the hell? They didn't have any staff? No one was helping her with his medical needs?

[K Frame]

IIRC, in the US, it is much more prevalent in the dry West.

Yep, it's found in most of the United States but is rarer the further east you move. In 2024 a Virginia Tech either student or researcher contracted it while doing field work in West Virginia and died.

I don't mess crap like this. When I had mice in the house about a decade ago I got an N95 mask and face shield to clean up after the little bastards.

[Ben]

Yep, it's found in most of the United States but is rarer the further east you move.

I just did some gazoogling, and apparently New Mexico is #1 for the virus.

[K Frame]

I've always heard that it's most associated with the high desert plateau -- New Mexico, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, and Nevada.

[WLJ]

That must have been some severe Alzheimer's for him to be in the house with the body for a week. He would have presumably been doing other things, like eating, or at least drinking, and going to the bathroom and stuff. It looks like maybe he forgot about the one dog locked in the crate as well. I assume dogs can't go without water much longer than humans.

Both she and the dog died in the bathroom and more than likely it literally became out of sight out of mind .
My mother didn't even know who I was and forgot I even existed as a person if I left her alone for even a short period of time. I was just some stranger that popped up from time to time.

[K Frame]

Both she and the dog died in the bathroom and out of sight out of mind.
My mother didn't even know who I was and forgot I even existed as a person if I left her alone for even a short period of time. I was just some stranger that popped up from time to time.

Ouch.

My Mom was heading that way, but never quite got to that point.

But she was at the point where she was mistaking me for my Father, and she thought that her Mom and Dad's Mom were still alive.

She was also regressing to the point where she no longer lived in the house that she and Dad moved to in 1999, which was the house that my Dad grew up in from 1943 onwards.

In Mom's mind it was the 1950s or 1960s and she thought that she was a guest in the house (she and my Dad ran in the same friends group in school so she was a frequent guest in the house all through school before she and Dad married in 1963).

I feel for you, WLJ. I know some of how rough that is.

[WLJ]

But she was at the point where she was mistaking me for my Father, and she thought that her Mom and Dad's Mom were still alive.

She did that too for a while, even asked for a divorce a few times because I was being mean to her.

In Mom's mind it was the 1950s or 1960s and she thought that she was a guest in the house (she and my Dad ran in the same friends group in school so she was a frequent guest in the house all through school before she and Dad married in 1963).

Yep, she thought she was in 1940 or so.

[griz]

What the hell? They didn't have any staff? No one was helping her with his medical needs?

I suspect that being younger, she just assumed the caretaker role and it never occurred to her that she could go first.  But I would think you would know you were sick from that virus; it wouldn't be sudden like a heart attack.  Hard to say.

[K Frame]

She did that too for a while, even asked for a divorce a few times because I was being mean to her.

Yep, she thought she was in 1940 or so.

Every time I look at Seren I know there's a kind and loving God to have made creatures like the dog.

And then I look at what happens to people we love as we get old and I think *expletive deleted*ing really, Dude? REALLY?

[JTHunter]

I suspect that being younger, she just assumed the caretaker role and it never occurred to her that she could go first.  But I would think you would know you were sick from that virus; it wouldn't be sudden like a heart attack.  Hard to say.

From the reports I heard last night, she was in Santa Fe earlier in the day (2/11-?) AND was wearing a mask so it appears she knew she was ill but may have thought it was the flu.  The article also pointed out that a number of emails she received that evening went unanswered.

[WLJ]

In many ways Alzheimer's is harder on the family than it is on the people with it as they're largely unaware of what they're forgotten. Meanwhile the family gets a front roll seat to watching their love one's mind slowly fade away

[K Frame]

Unfortunately, my Mother was fully aware that something was very, very wrong with her.

And I'm ashamed to say that none of us dealt with it very well.

[WLJ]

With my mother it was everything anyone told her counter to what she remembered she knew for a fact was wrong and you were the one with the problem and were lying to her.
If I told her I was her son she "knew" I was lying to her.

[WLJ]

Someone asked her about Walter, my older brother, and she said Walther died. Walther was sitting right in front of her at the time.
She may have meant our grandfather Walter because if anyone asked about her children she said she had no children.

[WLJ]

She always had a paranoid streak but the A turned it up to an 11. If I mentioned I was her son she wouldn't eat anything for a while because she knew I was lying thus I was poisoning her food. Had to wait for her to forget I said anything for her to eat again. Usually her brain would do sort of a reset after a few hours. Learned not to mention anything like that around eating time.

[HeroHog]

My MIL is way off in it and rarely recognizes anyone, including her kids and sister, which hurts them a lot. They know that she has no control over that but still, it hurts. For a while now, we have all been praying for a quick, peaceful, death, soon. IFKYK

PS: She wasn't a great, or even a good mom and has just gotten worse over the years.