For 17 years, “courage can be contagious” was the phrase Captain Chesley Sullenberger used to describe that freezing January day in 2009, when he landed a crippled airliner on the Hudson River and walked away with all 155 people on board.
Yesterday, at 75, he revealed a new chapter.
Sully has early-stage Alzheimer’s.
He says the changes started small — a name that doesn’t come as easily, a story he’s already told once before.
His doctor at UCSF told him this disease spares no one, young or old, and touches millions of families quietly, often in silence.
But silence isn’t Sully’s way.
He decided to speak up, hoping other families facing the same diagnosis won’t feel so alone in it.
His wife Lorrie says he’s still the same steady man the world watched on TV that day in the Hudson.
And Sully says the same courage that got everyone off that plane safely is the courage he’s leaning on now.
In September, he’ll be inducted into the National Aviation Hall of Fame — proof that Alzheimer’s can affect his memory, but it can’t touch his legacy.
If courage really is contagious, Captain Sully is spreading it one more time.
What do you want to say to him?
#CaptainSully #HeroOfTheHudson #Alzheimers #AlzheimersAwareness #Courage #USAirways1549 #AviationLegend
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