The fuse was lit with the birth of the first baby boomers.

Two years from now the number of new Alzheimer's cases will "explode" wiping out the memories of half a million aging boomers.

And the news only gets worse.

As Barbara Reyelts tells us in our special report "The Forgotten Problem" not only is there no cure but we are simply not ready to care for this latest generation of victims.

For Dan and Mary Jane Olson, family is everything.

The couple has worked together their entire careers and believes in taking care of their own.

When Mary Jane's mom felt she could no longer care for herself in Wakefield, Michigan, the couple drove out, picked her and brought her back to live with them.

As she got older, she didn't want to live alone anymore, she was about 85.

Everything was fine for just over two years. Because the couple worked out of their home there was almost always someone with Shirley. It was a tough task as her Alzheimer's symptoms worsened. Still Dan and Mary Jane didn't want to ask for help.

I was dead against nursing homes and I didn't want her to go.

But one day everything changed.

"Two years and two months before, she had her stroke and then fell down the stairs and we just couldn't handle her here anymore."

Like thousands of other caregivers across the country, the time had come to look for help. Dan and Mary Jane began a scientific search for the best place to put Shirley.

"We toured different facilities in the area and decided on one in particular that would best meet the needs of my mom."

Dan and Mary Jane were picky. They wanted a place that would stimulate Shirley's brain...a place that would listen to her repeated, old-timer's memories.

"You have to answer the same question over and every five, ten minutes for an hour with the same enthusiasm as it's for the first time, if it's the first time you've heard it."

"You have to the patience of a saint."

It was a hard decision...full of emotion and worry.

"Oh, it breaks you're heart, it breaks you're heart. You can't imagine how much it hurts. I was a basket case for about a week, I just walked around weeping."

The couple finally settled on Golden Living in Superior.

We're a people orientated program; we are not a task orientated program. And that's the big difference between a skilled side of a nursing home and a dementia unit or an Alzheimer's unit.

Scientists don't know what causes Alzheimer's and at this point there's no cure. Research has shown Alzheimer's patients' nerve cells die in areas of the brain vital to memory and other mental abilities.

About 5 percent of people, between 65 and 74, have the disease but by the time they're 85 nearly half of the population will have it. As baby boomers age the numbers of those afflicted is expected to skyrocket.

Well we know that right now in 2000 it was 411,000 new cases and in 2010 it will be 454,000 new cases, so that's a big jump just in that time. And then it even goes bigger in 2030 its 615,000 new cases, so there are some big jumps that are coming up.

Experts say they fear the nation is nowhere near ready to handle that explosion of need.

We're probably not ready it seems like the baby boomers are going to appear and somehow we'll accomplish a revolutionary way of handling them.

To give care facilities more time to gear up they say there are steps we can all take to slow the process.

We should be taking care of ourselves following what a heart healthy diet turns out to be a brain healthy diet.

Experts also agree that keeping our minds active as we age is also critical. That's a philosophy Dan and Mary Jane have embraced for Shirley.

"She is involved in every outing they go in, participates in Bingo which she never did before, but now she just absolutely loves it."
"She's absolutely blossoming."

In Superior, Barbara Reyelts, the Northland's News Center.

As Alzheimer's disease progresses it's often more than spouses or other family members can handle.

Tomorrow Barbara will take a look at services offered and support networks in place to help care for the victim and the care-givers.