The family of “Jungle Jack” Hanna has revealed that the beloved former zookeeper is enduring an “advanced” stage of Alzheimer’s disease, where he doesn’t remember most of his own family.
“The Jack people knew isn’t here anymore, but pieces of my husband are,” his wife Suzi Hanna told The Columbus Dispatch. “And I’m going to hang onto them for as long as I can.”
Jack’s wife and daughters Kathaleen, Suzanne, and Julie revealed that he now only remembers his wife of 54 years, his dog Brassy, and, occasionally, his eldest daughter Kathaleen.
He has been battling the disease in private since he was diagnosed in 2019.
The 76-year-old resigned from his post as director emeritus of Ohio’s Columbus Zoo and Aquarium in Dec. 2020.
“He just stopped remembering who I was in all ways. Whether it was in person or by phone, he had no idea I was his daughter,” Suzanne told the outlet. “I think it’s because he didn’t see me as much because I got married so young and I moved away.”
As he continues to battle the disease, Jack’s only sense of normalcy is the daily two-mile walks he takes with Suzi, she notes.
“I want to hold on to these walks as long as I can,” she told the outlet. “I remember the day this all officially started. The day the doctor told us what it was. I’ve just tried to hang on to the little pieces of Jack since then.”
“My husband is still in there somewhere,” Suzi went on. “There are still those sweet, tender moments — you know, pieces of him that made me and the rest of the world fall in love with him.”
Suzi said that taking care of her husband has been “real hard some days, but he took care of me all those years, and so it’s my turn to take care of him.”
Elsewhere, Jack’s eldest daughter Kathaleen said they decided to share such intimate details of her dad’s condition in a desperate bid to help others dealing with the same.
“If this helps even one other family, it’s more than worth sharing dad’s story,” Kathaleen said. “He spent a lifetime helping everyone he could. He will never know it or understand it, but he is still doing it now.”
“He only retired due to the Alzheimer’s,” she added. “He was embarrassed by it. He lived in fear the public would find out.”
Kathaleen said her dad “would have worked until the day he died.”
And despite the increasing difficulty in dealing with Jack’s declining health, Suzi told the outlet that she is not looking to hire help.
“I just want it to be your dad and I for as long as I can,” she said to her daughters. “The river, the sun, Brassy, our walks. That’s what we have left.”
Hanna’s daughters first revealed their father’s diagnosis in a letter shared by the Columbus Zoo in April 2021.
“His condition has progressed much faster in the last few months than any of us could have anticipated,” they wrote at the time. “Sadly, Dad is no longer able to participate in public life as he used to, where people all over the world watched, learned, and laughed alongside him.”