'One of the meanest things I've ever seen in my life': One man's heartbreaking plea goes viral

'I want them to know that I'm the same old person, and I wish that all my friends could just come up and talk to me, just like they did before.'

In a heartbreaking video that Mary Beth Beamer posted to Facebook, her husband, Alan Beamer, begs for his friends and family to visit like they used to.

LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - The four-minute video was posted on January third and received nearly 10,000 views within three days. Now, one month later, the video has been viewed over 1 million times and shared over 20,000 times.

Mary Beth can be heard asking Alan several questions during the short film. She begins with, "Good morning, let me take a few minutes. We've had a rough couple of days and I just wanted to put this out there - my husband is Alan Beamer, Alzheimer's. Visual variance from playing the lovely game of football, but we don't need to get into that.

"What we need to get into is this is basically for our family and friends. What we'd like you to know is... what Alan feels, so that's where we're going to go. So, um, Beam... you have Alzheimer's. What do you want people to know about Alzheimer's?"

Alan, who is sitting on a couch with a coffee in his lap, responded, "It's a mean, mean -one of the meanest things I've ever seen in my life."

The man's face displayed the inner turmoil his statement caused and for a moment appears as if he was unable to keep himself together. He rubbed the side of his face and looked off-camera as his wife continued the line of questioning.

"Now," she said, "one of the most important questions we have is how do you feel, or what do you want from your family and friends? What would you ask them?"

Alan replied, "Well, my, my friends, one of my biggest friends is my wife."

"But what do you want your friends to know out there about Alzheimer's? What do you need?" Mary Beth asked gently.

"Just know it -need to know that it's -I'm the same old person and I wish that people, all of my friends could come up and just talk to me just like you did before. And uh, you know, play and joke around...I know they're afraid of me...I love them. I wish, I wish they'd come over. 

"And they'd only have to stay for five minute, ten minutes, but they don't stay five minutes. It's all, um, I would love it if they came over and stayed over for a while. And uh, we -we could talk about what's really happening in the United States...

"I would rather just be -[Alzheimer's] be ignored."

By the end of the video Alan has tears falling down his face and he struggles to say "thank you" to his friends and family.

Since the Beamer's video went viral, the couple began to receive several "friend" requests on Facebook and thousands more left heartwarming comments that included promises to visit.

Most people are afraid to see the deterioration of a loved one, but what many forget is how desperately Alzheimer's patients need the support of their friends and family. If you knew this was how they felt, would YOU take the time to visit?

---

The California Network is the Next Wave in delivery of information and entertainment on pop culture, social trends, lifestyle, entertainment, news, politics and economics. We are hyper-focused on one audience, YOU, the connected generation. JOIN US AS WE REDEFINE AND REVOLUTIONIZE THE EVER-CHANGING MEDIA LANDSCAPE.