Glenn Gordon Caron, an American writer and friend of Bruce Willis, has offered the most recent report on the iconic actor’s health.
The 68-year-old Die Hard star’s family disclosed in February that he had been diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD).
Willis’ family revealed in February that the 68-year-old’s condition had progressed to frontotemporal dementia (FTD), which can cause behavioural and language issues.
Glenn Gordon Caron, 69, told the New York Post on Tuesday that he tries to visit the Die Hard actor once a month.
After being diagnosed with dementia, actor Bruce Willis is no longer completely verbal.
“I’m not always quite that good but I try and I do talk to him and his wife [Emma Heming Willis] and I have a casual relationship with his three older children,” Caron was quoted as saying by the newspaper. “I have tried very hard to stay in his life.”
“The thing that makes [his disease] so mind-blowing is [that] if you’ve ever spent time with Bruce Willis, there is no one who had any more joie de vivre [joy of living] than he,” the film’s director said. “He adored waking up every day and loved life.”
Caron added that FTD has made Bruce, 68, unable to communicate, explaining that it’s as if “he now sees life through a screen door.” However, he said Bruce does still recognize him when he visits
“My sense is the first one to three minutes he knows who I am,” he said.
“He’s not totally verbal; he used to be a voracious reader — he didn’t want anyone to know that — and he’s not reading now. All those language skills are no longer available to him, and yet he’s still Bruce.”
“When you’re with him you know that he’s Bruce and you’re grateful that he’s there,” he noted, “but the joie de vivre is gone.
Last month, Emma appeared on the Today show and shared that she’s not sure if her husband is aware of his health condition.
“It’s hard to know,” the Make Time Wellness founder, 45, said on the show, alongside Susan Dickinson, head of the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration (AFTD).”
