To say Gospel singer Cissy Houston has been through a lot is an understatement. Having to watch her superstar daughter rise to fame and then battle with addiction and ultimately die in front of the world to see. Then witness her granddaughter’s death in an eerily similar way is pain enough that most people can’t bear. Now, reports are saying that Cissy is battling dementia, according to sources close to the Grammy winner.
“She’s in the early stages of dementia,” a source told Radar Online. “She repeats herself a lot and doesn’t remember what she says. She just says she’s getting old.”
This follows reports that the 84-year-old family matriarch of the Houston family had no idea that daughter, Whitney Houston, and son Gary Houston were molested as children by their cousin, Dee Dee Warwick, sister of singer Dionne Warwick. Gary shared the secret for the first time in the documentary Whitney.
“The family is already fractured enough,” said the source, “but she has had enough clarity to know what’s going on with these claims and is very upset.”
Dementia is a syndrome, not a disease. A syndrome is a group of symptoms that doesn’t have a definitive diagnosis. Dementia is a group of symptoms that affects mental cognitive tasks such as memory and reasoning. Dementia is an umbrella term that Alzheimer’s disease can fall under. It can occur due to a variety of conditions, the most common of which is Alzheimer’s disease.
People can have more than one type of dementia. This is known as mixed dementia. Often, people with mixed dementia have multiple conditions that may contribute to dementia. A diagnosis of mixed dementia can only be confirmed in an autopsy.
As dementia progresses, it can have a huge impact on the ability to function independently. It’s a major cause of disability for older adults, and places an emotional and financial burden on families and caregivers.
The World Health Organization says that 47.5 million people around the world are living with dementia.
In Cissy’s official statement, she seems adamant and in control of her thoughts. Read a portion of the statement below:
“My niece Dionne Warwick and I make this statement to raise our voices above the din surrounding the release of the film, Whitney. Although the film is marketed as a Houston Family approved/endorsed project, neither my son, Michael, Dionne nor I knew of the allegations of abuse, the direction the film would take, until two days before the screening at Cannes.”
“To begin we want to state clearly that the horror of what victims of sexual abuse experience is unimaginable. We make no attempt to…
… minimize the pain, the trauma and perhaps lifelong damage to the psyche of abuse victims. We understand and acknowledge that there are no rules governing a person’s reaction to trauma and every person reacts differently. By this statement we do not intend to defend, condone or excuse the crime of molestation.”
“We cannot, however, overstate the shock and horror we feel and the difficulty we have believing that my niece Dee Dee Warwick (Dionne’s sister) molested two of my three children.”
So, whatever the situation is, whether she has dementia or not, we pray for healing and peace for this grieving family.
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