Latest / Austin Signal / For couple affected by dementia, a love song keeps memories alive

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For couple affected by dementia, a love song keeps memories alive · Austin Signal

0:08
Five years on from the winter storm
0:10
that caused blackouts across much of
0:11
the state of Texas.
0:13
What has been done to address the
0:14
failures of that blackout?
0:16
And are we here in Austin ready for
0:18
the next big winter test of the
0:20
power grid?
0:21
More about what has and has
0:22
not happened since February of 2021.
0:25
That is coming up on today's show.
0:27
The Austin Signal is a production
0:29
of KUT News, hosted by
0:31
Jerry Quijano.
0:32
Plus, there is an argument to be
0:34
made that the Lieutenant Governor of
0:35
Texas is the most
0:37
influential elected official in the
0:39
state.
0:40
Republicans have held the position
0:41
for nearly three decades.
0:42
We'll hear about the candidates
0:43
running to represent Texas Democrats
0:45
in this fall's election and
0:47
what happens to love when memories
0:49
fade away.
0:51
Hear how one woman in Pflugerville
0:52
is doing her best to keep love alive
0:54
through music.
0:55
That's coming up next here on Austin
0:58
Signal.
1:07
Howdy out there, you are tuned in
1:09
to Austin Signal.
1:11
It is Friday the 13th.
1:12
I'm Jerry Keechanel.
1:14
Five years ago, folks here in Austin
1:16
got what at first seemed like a
1:18
nice, fun dusting of snow,
1:20
the kind that makes for a winter
1:22
wonderland here in Texas.
1:24
Here's KUT's Mo's Bouchelle five
1:26
years ago last night.
1:35
So this is the beginning.
1:37
A couple weeks after the big
1:39
blackout, I found this video
1:41
in my phone.
1:42
Well, it might be a historic
1:44
winter storm here
1:46
in Austin.
1:47
It's from the night before the power
1:49
went out. When I found it, I didn't
1:51
even remember recording it.
1:53
Just started down here.
1:54
Or exactly who I was recording it
1:56
for. I know I was really
1:58
excited about the snow.
2:00
I love this.
2:02
But when I listen back, this
2:04
sounds corny.
2:05
I get chills because
2:07
of this last thing I say right
2:10
here. Big question for a lot of
2:11
people right now is whether the
2:14
electric grid's gonna hold up.
2:21
We didn't know then about the coming
2:23
blackouts that would throw the state
2:24
into confusion and cause
2:26
hundreds of deaths.
2:28
On the five-year anniversary of that
2:30
storm, we're talking with Moe's
2:31
Bouchelle. Moe has been doing some
2:33
special reporting for the Texas
2:34
newsroom and has served for more
2:36
than a decade as KUT's energy
2:38
and environment correspondent, and
2:40
he hosts the podcast, The Disconnect
2:41
Power, Politics, and the Texas
2:43
Blackout.
2:44
Moe, thank you for being with us.
2:46
Pleasure, Jerry.
2:47
Obviously now we've dealt with
2:49
the repercussions of the storm,
2:51
but at the time, how realistic was
2:53
it that we might experience a
2:54
blackout of that magnitude?
2:56
Nobody expected something that
2:58
bad happening.
2:59
I think that's fair to say.
3:00
There was in fact I think a fair
3:02
amount of confidence
3:05
in some of the years leading up to
3:07
21 that ERCOT had started
3:09
to get a handle on some of its cold
3:11
weather problems.
3:12
And obviously that confidence was
3:14
proven to be absolutely unfounded.
3:15
But we had a much smaller
3:19
kind of state outage,
3:21
rolling outage blackout in 2011
3:23
that prompted some
3:25
people to start thinking about this
3:27
and prompted some
3:29
kind of suggestions
3:31
from federal regulators
3:32
as well over how to protect the grid
3:34
against cold weather.
3:36
Clearly, those lessons weren't
3:38
learned as well as they thought
3:40
they were.
3:40
So when this massive storm
3:42
rolled in,
3:44
we were just knocked over.
3:47
This is covered in the podcast that
3:49
you did for KUT and KUTX studios,
3:51
The Disconnect.
3:52
I was listening back to the first
3:53
episode this morning and you
3:55
talk about sort of
3:57
there being knowledge of what the
3:59
problem was, but not as much
4:01
being done to address the
4:03
problem.
4:03
Since the storm five years ago, what
4:05
has been done to winterize the grid
4:07
since
4:08
I think that the main thing that
4:10
everyone points to are standards
4:12
for essentially
4:14
insulating power plants.
4:16
A lot of things went wrong all at
4:18
once during that blackout,
4:20
but one of those things was that
4:22
the gas power plants and other
4:24
energy generators too just weren't
4:26
prepared for that level of cold and
4:28
also the freezing rain, and so
4:30
they literally broke down.
4:32
After 21, the
4:34
state finally created
4:36
regulations to prepare power plants
4:38
for cold weather.
4:39
That alone is like one of the most
4:41
demonstrable kind of things that you
4:43
can point to and say uh...
4:44
We have done this now and so power
4:46
plants are supposed to be better
4:48
better equipped for for freezing
4:49
weather they are inspected to make
4:51
sure that they're preparing for
4:52
freezing whether that is one thing
4:54
you can point to say yes texas has
4:55
done this
4:56
And in the five years since the
4:58
storm, have we seen a real test of
5:00
it that would be comparable to what
5:01
happened in 2021?
5:02
Yeah, I have a story about this just
5:04
up on the web today.
5:06
We haven't, we've seen big
5:08
freezes, we've see big winter
5:09
storms. And what we see every time
5:11
it happens is everybody gets really
5:13
panicked, right? We all worry, I
5:15
think understandably after what
5:17
people went through in 21.
5:19
But when you compare any
5:21
of these big storms to the
5:23
big winter storm in 21, none
5:25
of the big storms we've since then
5:26
have come close to the magnitude
5:29
of that storm.
5:30
And I'm talking in terms of how cold
5:31
it got, how long it stayed that
5:32
cold, just the massive amounts
5:34
of freezing precipitation.
5:37
And also importantly for the
5:38
power grid, the size.
5:40
I mean, this thing covered the
5:42
entire state of Texas for
5:44
days. That means that the entire
5:46
State was trying to
5:48
draw power off the grid all
5:50
at once. And when that happens,
5:52
that's when you have problems on the
5:53
energy system because everybody
5:55
wants power and well,
5:57
hey, what's happening? The power
5:58
plants are shutting down.
5:59
That was the formula that
6:01
led to this disaster.
6:02
And as we learn through this
6:04
disaster, this grid is
6:05
uniquely Texan and its connections
6:07
and its capabilities.
6:09
Is this problem though of the
6:11
potential for blackouts, is that
6:13
uniquely Texin?
6:14
Uh... So you know one thing that i i
6:16
i find interesting is that there
6:17
seems to be a kind of growing
6:18
anxiety over power grids across the
6:20
country and uh...
6:21
In a way texas may have gotten there
6:23
first uh...
6:24
We are seeing uh...
6:26
Increasingly urgent warnings from
6:28
that national regulators uh...
6:30
And and people that watch power
6:32
grits saying that that regional
6:34
grids are aging,
6:37
there is not a lot
6:39
of excess capacity
6:41
energy that might be drawn on
6:43
in an emergency, in a weather
6:44
emergency, and there are all these
6:46
weaknesses that they have identified
6:48
that they recommend
6:50
should be fixed.
6:51
Here I'm actually thinking
6:52
specifically of a recent report out
6:54
from the North American Electric
6:56
Reliability Corporation saying
6:57
that many grids across the
6:59
country are at high
7:01
of having energy shortages
7:03
in extreme events.
7:06
And the question is,
7:08
what do you do about it?
7:09
Moza, I mentioned the podcast that
7:11
you did for KUT and KUTx, the
7:12
disconnect for a listener who might
7:14
not be familiar.
7:15
What do you cover in that podcast?
7:16
I mean, we try to look at
7:18
everything, the world of
7:20
energy systems and power grids is a
7:21
complicated one.
7:22
It's also a very political one,
7:24
especially in Texas, I think
7:26
I could say.
7:27
And we
7:29
tell the history of the Texas grid.
7:31
Why do we have our own power grid?
7:32
Something a lot of people say should
7:34
be changed.
7:35
We should link up with other grids.
7:37
Why is the grid so
7:39
dependent on natural gas here and
7:41
has been for much longer than a lot
7:43
of the rest of the country?
7:44
Things like that and so,
7:46
and much more.
7:47
And so we tell that story
7:49
to try to explain
7:52
how this just this
7:53
massive disaster could could
7:55
happen.
7:56
In many ways, a human cause disaster
7:58
could happen in the energy capital
8:00
of the country in Texas.
8:02
And it's still it still
8:04
resonates today because people you
8:05
know people like like we said people
8:07
still think about this people are
8:08
still worried.
8:10
And the reality is,
8:12
we have not had a storm like that
8:14
since.
8:15
And so...
8:16
Uh, you talk to analysts and
8:18
they'll say, you know, some things
8:19
have been improved.
8:20
Uh, other things have not improved.
8:23
There are new challenges and we
8:25
won't really know where we stand
8:26
until we get another storm of
8:28
that magnitude.
8:30
And no one wants that to happen.
8:33
We have been speaking with Moe's Boo
8:35
Shell. He is the host of The
8:36
Disconnect. He is KUT's energy
8:38
and environment reporter and he has
8:39
been doing some special reporting
8:40
for the Texas Newsroom.
8:42
We're gonna have a link to all of
8:43
his reporting in the show notes for
8:45
today's podcast and you can find
8:46
more at kut.org
8:49
slash signal.
8:50
Moe, thank you. Thank you, Jerry.
8:59
The lieutenant governor of Texas is
9:01
arguably the most influential
9:03
elected official in the state.
9:05
It's also a job that's been held by
9:07
Republicans since 1999,
9:09
most recently by Dan Patrick,
9:11
who's been in the role for 11 years.
9:14
But Democrats are hoping to give
9:15
Patrick a run for his money this
9:17
November.
9:18
First though, Texas Dems have to
9:19
decide who they're gonna put on the
9:21
ballot against him.
9:22
Three candidates are vying for the
9:24
nomination in the party's primary
9:25
next month.
9:27
The Texas newsroom's Blaise Ganey
9:28
introduces us to them and explains
9:30
why the spot is highly sought
9:32
after.
9:34
In Texas, the lieutenant governor's
9:36
job includes presiding over the
9:37
state Senate, selecting key
9:39
committee leadership roles, even
9:41
deciding which bills live or
9:43
die. In all, the role here wields
9:45
an almost unusual amount of
9:47
authority. Brandon Rottinghouse is a
9:48
University of Houston political
9:50
scientist.
9:50
The Texas Lieutenant Governor is one
9:52
of the top five most powerful in the
9:54
country.
9:54
And that power has only expanded
9:56
since Lieutenant Governor Dan
9:57
Patrick took office.
9:59
Patrick's iron-fisted approach has
10:00
shaped some of the state's most
10:02
contentious recent policy fights,
10:04
from school vouchers to gambling.
10:06
Now, three Democrats are fighting to
10:08
be the one on the ballot against the
10:09
incumbent Republican later this
10:11
year, software company manager
10:13
Courtney Head, Marcos Velez,
10:15
a labor advocate, and state
10:16
representative Vicki Goodwin.
10:18
We've had 30 years of Republican
10:20
leadership, and it's time for
10:21
change.
10:22
Since 2019, Goodwins represented
10:24
her Austin area district in the
10:26
Texas House, where she serves on the
10:28
Appropriations Committee.
10:29
Under Republicans, she says public
10:31
schools are suffering.
10:32
I want to make sure that we're
10:33
funding them appropriately,
10:35
that we are not diverting our public
10:37
tax dollars to private schools,
10:39
that were supporting our teachers,
10:41
our students, and a system
10:43
that serves over 90% of the
10:44
kids in Texas.
10:45
She also argues the state's current
10:47
leaders aren't listening to the
10:49
public, pointing to Dan Patrick's
10:50
push last year to ban THC
10:52
products.
10:53
We had over 600 people come
10:55
to the Capitol to testify against
10:57
the ban on THC, and you don't
10:59
see that very often, you don't those
11:00
numbers.
11:01
Goodwin says she supports fully
11:03
legalizing marijuana.
11:04
We ought to treat marijuana, THC,
11:06
what have you, the same as we do
11:08
alcohol.
11:08
That's something she and fellow
11:10
candidate Marcos Velez agree on.
11:12
Velez grew up outside of Houston and
11:14
worked in oil refineries, eventually
11:16
organizing around workplace safety.
11:18
He says affordability, especially
11:20
for young workers, is what pushed
11:22
him to run for
11:23
I look at my son now,
11:25
college-educated, he delivers
11:26
pizzas, and I'm not knocking my son.
11:29
What I'm saying is, even with
11:31
$100,000 education,
11:33
you can't secure $100k a year job.
11:36
Wages haven't kept pace with
11:38
productivity in that Texas isn't
11:40
prioritizing policies that help
11:41
everyday workers.
11:43
Besides marijuana, he supports
11:44
legalizing gambling.
11:46
There's all these different things
11:47
that we could legalize, we could
11:48
regulate, and we can use the profit
11:50
from those things to bring
11:52
people's property taxes down.
11:54
The high property taxes in Texas is
11:56
a goal shared by Democrats and
11:58
Republicans, and Dan Patrick has
12:00
been a main driver for it at the
12:02
Capitol. But despite big swings by
12:04
Texas lawmakers, many homeowners
12:05
here say it's not enough.
12:07
Velez also points to Patrick's
12:09
stance against gambling, something
12:10
Velez does not agree with.
12:11
Lez says ignores reality.
12:23
The third Democrat in the race,
12:25
Courtney Head, is a San
12:26
Antonio-based software professional.
12:28
She also supports legalizing
12:29
cannabis, plus expanding Medicaid,
12:32
repealing school vouchers, and
12:33
investing in high-speed rail.
12:35
But all three face a major obstacle,
12:37
money.
12:38
Patrick reports he has roughly $38
12:40
million on hand for his
12:42
re-election campaign.
12:43
By comparison, Goodwin has about
12:45
159,000, Velez
12:47
around 46,000 and Head
12:49
just a few hundred dollars.
12:51
Which Roddinghouse says will make it
12:53
tough to compete.
12:54
Of the ability to advertise
12:57
and to convince people that you
12:59
have a better policy set than your
13:01
opponent, then it's just hard
13:03
for them to really understand why
13:04
you're running and to know in
13:06
fact that you're running
13:07
Kendall Scudder, chair of the Texas
13:09
Democratic Party, remains optimistic
13:11
on the lieutenant governor's race.
13:12
Republicans are always going to have
13:14
more money than us.
13:14
That's just life.
13:16
They are the party of the
13:17
billionaires and we are the party of
13:19
people.
13:19
In the recent win for Democrats in
13:21
Texas Senate District 9 is giving
13:23
the party hope.
13:24
In that special election, the
13:26
Republican candidate spent $2
13:27
million more than the Democratic
13:29
fictor. Scudder says that shows
13:31
two things.
13:32
Voters aren't happy.
13:33
And number two, there's a ceiling to
13:35
what it.
13:35
Packs this money has.
13:37
Meanwhile, the incumbent appears
13:39
unconcerned.
13:40
Patrick's already rolling out his
13:41
plans for the next legislative
13:42
session in 2027, which
13:44
include more property tax cuts.
13:46
Early voting for the party primaries
13:48
in Texas begins February 17th.
13:50
I'm Blaise Ganey in Austin.
13:52
And we'll have more Austin Signal
13:54
for you after this
13:56
break.
14:00
Happy Friday, this is
14:01
Austin Signal.
14:03
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day,
14:05
so today we've got a love story for
14:07
ya. It's about a couple in
14:09
Pflugerville, Clyde and Cassandra
14:11
Loftus.
14:12
This is a story about what happens
14:14
when memories fade and how
14:16
to hold on to them.
14:17
Here is KUT's Matt Largie.
14:21
The story begins with a workplace
14:22
romance.
14:23
Do you remember the first time that
14:24
you met Cassandra?
14:27
This is Clyde.
14:29
Yeah, yeah.
14:30
She was walking down.
14:34
You came into the office and then.
14:35
And then the office, yeah, and
14:37
then what?
14:38
My brain's gone.
14:40
This is Cassandra.
14:41
Yeah, we just met like
14:43
co-workers, you know, oh this is
14:44
Clyde, this is Cass, I...
14:46
Cassandra and Clyde eventually
14:48
started dating.
14:49
Cassandra knew he was a keeper.
14:51
He was.
14:52
Brilliant, very, very smart
14:54
man,
14:56
and funny, and
14:58
those beautiful blue eyes,
15:00
and his kindness and his
15:02
generosity.
15:05
I got to see all of that and
15:07
wanted to have that.
15:09
They got married in 2009.
15:11
It was a small ceremony.
15:13
Now, there's something you need to
15:14
know. Clyde had been playing guitar
15:16
since he was eight years old.
15:18
My dad had played guitars
15:20
and uncles,
15:22
and then I got into really
15:25
hard metal and
15:26
stuff.
15:27
Clyde had always had dreams of being
15:29
a rock star.
15:30
Brought his guitar with him when he
15:31
served in the Navy.
15:32
Started bands with his friends.
15:34
The music was part of him.
15:36
I'm not bragging, but I can play
15:38
like hell.
15:40
So when it came time for Cassandra
15:42
and Clyde's first dance,
15:44
Clyde had a song, their own
15:46
original song, written and
15:47
performed by Clyde.
15:51
Yeah, he had a song recorded
15:53
for our first dance and the most
15:54
amazing, wonderful thing.
16:01
So they were married, they made a
16:03
life together, and for a few years
16:05
there things were pretty good.
16:07
They had their struggles, but
16:08
nothing out of the ordinary.
16:09
We didn't go into this relationship
16:12
thinking, you know, everything was
16:13
gonna be all beautiful and rainbows.
16:16
It'd be nice, but it's not reality.
16:22
Around 2018, nine years
16:24
into their marriage, Cassandra
16:26
started to see changes in Clyde.
16:28
She'd tell him something or ask him
16:29
to do something and he wouldn't
16:31
remember.
16:32
She chalked it up to typical husband
16:34
not listening to his wife kind of
16:35
stuff.
16:36
But a co-worker of ours came
16:38
up to me and said, yeah, there's
16:39
something off about Clyde.
16:40
He's forgetting his tasks.
16:42
He's getting agitated at people.
16:44
And things kept getting worse.
16:46
I mean, he would come to me at work
16:47
and ask me to help him with his
16:49
work.
16:49
They knew something was wrong, but
16:51
not exactly what.
16:53
He had to quit his job.
16:54
There were doctor's appointments, so
16:56
many appointments.
16:58
Finally, they got a diagnosis.
17:00
It was dementia, specifically
17:02
Alzheimer's.
17:03
I understand it,
17:06
and I'm not mad.
17:09
Now, at first it was.
17:14
With her and me,
17:17
there's nothing, no, there is no
17:18
way.
17:19
Way to get hurt, you
17:21
know. They did clinical trials,
17:23
but nothing worked.
17:25
Clyde has lost a lot of
17:27
what made him who he is.
17:28
His math skills, language skills,
17:31
the words just won't come out much
17:32
of the time.
17:33
I'm a kid.
17:37
I'm a kid.
17:39
He even stopped playing music.
17:41
It's got to be so hard to be
17:43
in his head,
17:44
to not be able to just do
17:47
what you normally do and be
17:49
who you really are.
17:50
I mean, he looks at a lot of
17:51
pictures of himself and he thinks
17:53
about all of the people he has
17:55
been, all of men he has be,
17:58
and he's just trying to hold on
18:00
to who he was, you know,
18:02
and it's hard.
18:03
But there is a version of Clyde
18:05
that hangs on.
18:06
Now this is pretty cool.
18:07
He shows me into his home studio.
18:09
He's so excited to show
18:11
me.
18:13
It's acoustic and electric.
18:15
There are a half dozen guitars
18:16
hanging on the walls and on stands.
18:22
Four years after he put his music
18:24
down, he picked it back up.
18:31
I love hearing him play, but it's
18:33
kind of bittersweet because I
18:36
was there when he was at his peak
18:37
and he was so amazing.
18:40
So it's hard to see him with
18:42
these smaller bits, but he's just so
18:44
happy that he's playing.
18:50
Watching him play last July,
18:52
Clyde is in the zone.
18:53
He looks more confident than I've
18:55
seen so far, but he also seems
18:57
a little unsteady.
18:58
As you see the changes
19:00
in someone's dementia,
19:02
you are mourning losses
19:04
of small things every
19:06
day.
19:08
And to see him get up
19:10
and say, I'm going in the studio or
19:11
stay up all night, screaming
19:14
those speakers like crazy is
19:16
just pure joy.
19:18
It makes my heart happy.
19:22
Clyde says coming back to the guitar
19:24
has been therapeutic for him,
19:26
but getting started again wasn't
19:27
easy.
19:30
I don't want to be crude, but
19:32
I just said, you know what?
19:34
F*** that.
19:35
Do it. You can do it.
19:38
You know?
19:47
If I get bored,
19:49
I go into that studio and
19:52
make some noise.
19:59
I don't think, I
20:01
just let it go.
20:04
It's in me, you know it is.
20:25
It's six months later now.
20:26
I come back in January, 2026.
20:29
When I get inside, I can tell
20:31
instantly that something is
20:32
different.
20:33
Cassandra seems tired.
20:35
Clyde is quieter.
20:37
Things have gotten worse.
20:38
Some days he's almost nonverbal.
20:42
Um, somebody else had to tell me
20:43
that because your
20:45
brain fills in the
20:47
blanks of the conversation.
20:49
I feel like we've been having like
20:50
amazing intellectual conversations,
20:52
but he says one or two words.
20:54
Clyde's memory is declining fast.
20:57
Sometimes he looks Cassandra right
20:58
in the face and asks where she
21:00
is.
21:01
She tells him she's right there.
21:03
She's not going anywhere.
21:04
He asked me to marry him over and
21:06
over and over again and I always say
21:08
yes, right babe?
21:11
Whenever you ask me to marry you, I
21:12
say yes, don't I?
21:16
He hardly touches his guitars
21:17
anymore.
21:22
A while back, Clyde told Cassandra
21:24
he wanted them to write a song
21:26
together.
21:27
Clyde just said, hey, let's, we
21:29
need to write a love song.
21:30
We need to ride our story.
21:32
Like a sequel to the song he wrote
21:34
for Cassandra for their first dance
21:36
as a married couple, but this time
21:37
with words.
21:39
Clyde would provide the music,
21:40
or at least a recording he made
21:42
years ago, the music we're hearing
21:44
now.
21:45
Cassandra would write and sing the
21:47
lyrics. She agonized over
21:48
the words, wrote a draft and tossed
21:50
it out.
21:51
It was all wrong.
21:52
It was purely just my
21:55
grieving.
21:57
And then it developed into,
21:59
okay, so how did we meet?
22:00
How did we build our life together?
22:02
Three more drafts later, she thinks
22:04
she's found the words, but then
22:06
she's also not sure that it'll ever
22:07
be finished.
22:09
It's called We Are So Lucky.
22:12
Were you, were you
22:15
And I was me and
22:17
we were so
22:20
lucky
22:24
Does it sound perfect?
22:26
No, Cassandra is the first
22:27
to admit that.
22:29
But that, of course, is not the
22:30
point.
22:31
Like any love story, this love
22:33
song has its flaws.
22:35
The point of a love song is to sound
22:37
real, to sound like you mean the
22:39
words.
22:40
But even when the person they're
22:42
meant for doesn't always recognize
22:43
you, you still feel it.
22:48
Remember us in
22:50
your dreams tonight
22:53
Remember me
22:56
in the morning
23:01
We are Cass
23:03
and Clyde
23:05
And we will be
23:07
until the end of
23:09
time
23:13
We are
23:15
so lucky
23:20
We should all be so lucky.
23:21
I love you, bubba!
23:25
In Pflugerville, I'm Matt Largi.
23:33
That is it for this week here
23:35
on Austin Signal.
23:36
Thank you for spending some time
23:38
with us. You can find more from this
23:40
week of shows at kut.org
23:42
slash signal.
23:44
Kristen Cabrera is our managing
23:45
producer and Rayna Sevilla is
23:47
our technical director.
23:49
I'm your host, Jerry Kikano.
23:50
We will be back with you on Monday.
23:52
Have a lovely weekend.