Glen Campbell Can No Longer Tune a Guitar, Says His Wife
"He can play a couple licks here and there," his wife, Kim Campbell, tells PEOPLE
More than three years into his battle with Alzheimer’s, Glen Campbell can no longer do what’s been second nature for him for most of his life – tune a guitar.
“If I tune one and hand it to him he can still play, [but] not like he used to,” his wife, Kim Woolen, 55, told PEOPLE at the Open Hearts Foundation’s 4th Annual Gala in Malibu on May 10. “He can play a couple licks here and there, and he finds joy in that.”
Now living in a memory-care facility “just a few minutes” from their Nashville home, the “Rhinestone Cowboy” singer, 78, spends his days looking at pictures and chatting with Woolen, who visits him “every single day for hours.”
“It’s a very nurturing place [and] he feels secure there,” she says. “I sit with him through his meals we hug each other and cuddle. I savor every day.”
And though it’s been “absolutely heartbreaking” for the Campbell family (the couple have three children together), they do their best to stay positive.
“There’s a lot of sadness, [but] we just continue to try to make the best of every day and keep a sense of humor,” says Woolen.
• Reporting by MATTHEW COLE WEISS