Brunch with Barbie

Isthmus, August 2, 2018

The back patio of Mickey’s Tavern is full of diners, many of whom appear to be extending the previous night’s drinking. Sitting in the middle of it all is Barbie Strong, a 79-year-old woman with advanced Alzheimer’s. A regular at Mickey’s, Strong has been having brunch here every Saturday since 2014. Today she takes in the scene with a mischievous grin on her face. Eric Schechter, Strong’s son, sits to her left with a smile reminiscent of his mother’s.

“Sometimes I wonder if she is having sparkly hallucinations,” says Schechter, a social worker at Lake Monona Psychotherapy and Recovery Center.

John Potter, who once worked with Schechter at Journey Mental Health Center, sits across the table. He sees Barbie as a model for how people with Alzheimer’s can live. “Eric doesn’t say ‘Barbie can’t do this or she can’t do that.’”

A lifelong Madisonian, Strong earned a master’s degree in sociology from UW-Madison before starting an in-home child daycare. Fiercely independent, she spent many years traveling the world and chose to raise three children as a single parent. In 2008 she started showing signs of dementia and, in 2012, she was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. Strong is now non-verbal.

Many people have said that Strong belongs in a nursing home, but Schechter and his brother, Paul, are honoring her desire to stay in her home as long as possible. “We’ve had to buck the system and take calculated risks,” Schechter says. “We live in a society where everyone is so fetished out on safety that they are willing to not have quality of life.”

Schechter says a “village of people” — nurses, friends and family — have established round-the-clock care for Strong. He set up “Team Barbie” brunches at Mickey’s as a way to check in with the village. “It’s nice to have a standing appointment and people just know to come,” Schechter says. “It’s just another example of how diverse her life is.”