Exclusive: Hallmark’s Andrew Walker Shares His Family’s Hard Journey With Alzheimer’s

Longtime Hallmark star Andrew Walker is ready to put on his dancing shoes. On October 27, 2024, he’ll be among celebrities and fans gathering in Los Angeles for the Dance Party to End ALZ, an annual fundraiser coordinated by Hallmark stars Ashley Williams and Nikki DeLoach, dear friends who’ve both been vocal about the heartache of losing a parent to Alzheimer’s.

The event follows the September premiere of a Hallmark movie Williams created in partnership with the Alzheimer’s Association, “Falling Together,” to shed light on the disease’s impact — not only on patients but on those who love and care for them. But Williams and DeLoach aren’t the only Hallmark stars who’ve lost a parent to Alzheimer’s. Walker’s beloved and highly creative mom, Joyce Francis Crossley Walker, died in March 2023 after many years of decline.

The “Curious Caterer” star opened up about his experience to Heavy ahead of the Dance Party to End ALZ in hopes that his story might help others in similar situations feel less isolated, as well as inspire fans to attend the event or support the fundraiser from afar.

“I want people to know they aren’t alone on this journey,” Walker told Heavy. “Nikki, Ashley, myself — along with so many of our peers in the Hallmark world — we’ve gone through or been touched by Alzheimer’s. We’re carrying on our mothers’ and fathers’ and people that we’ve lost — we’re carrying on their legacies, you know? Telling these stories about who they were and … hopefully getting one step closer to solving this problem.”

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Andrew Walker Said His Family Took His Mom ‘Kicking and Screaming’ to Get Evaluated for Alzheimer’s

Though Walker found his niche in acting, he grew up in Montréal among gifted musicians including his “super talented” mom — a pianist who could play almost any piece by ear, he told Heavy, and didn’t need sheet music to remember songs she’d learned.

“She’d always had this vault,” he marveled. “She could remember phone numbers and songs and soliloquies of plays that she learned when she was younger.”

But as Walker’s star was rising at Hallmark, he and his family — dad Bruce and sister JenniMay — began noticing significant changes in Joyce’s memory, enough so that in 2013, they insisted she be evaluated at a renowned memory clinic in Montréal.

“We took her kicking and screaming,” Walker admitted. “It was not pretty, but we just needed to know what our options were to help slow the process.”

Because she was already in her mid-70s and medications at the time wouldn’t do much to stop the dementia from progressing, Walker said, doctors encouraged the family to do whatever they could to stimulate Joyce’s brain, from art to exercise to travel — a strategy that helped for several years.

Walker’s parents would frequently visit him wherever he was filming his latest movie, he told Heavy, recalling how he would “give my parents my bed and go sleep on a cot or a pull-out.” Then after a long day on set, he said, he’d take them out for dinner and “show them a good time.” Though that routine was exhausting, Walker added, “I don’t take back any one of those moments.”

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Andrew Walker is Particularly Passionate About Lifting Up Caregivers

Walker told Heavy his mom’s condition rapidly declined during the COVID pandemic, as his parents were isolated in their retirement community without access to the activities that had kept his mom busy and stimulated.

Living in Los Angeles and unable to see them as frequently, Walker said the progression of Alzheimer’s and signs of Parkinson’s, a closely-linked neurological disorder, was increasingly and brutally evident each time he was able to visit.

“She was in a wheelchair and my dad was caregiving for her for a good two, three years after that,” Walker told Heavy, adding that Bruce was in his early 80s, finding it increasingly difficult to take care of his wife’s basic needs.

“Her head was turned to the side — basically, she was frozen,” Walker recalled, adding that Joyce reached a point where she could no longer talk. “Her body was atrophying. Her eyes would just brighten, though, when she would see me come in. Her eyes would just open up. I really felt like she knew what was going on, maybe in her brain but also in her soul. Her soul was there.”

“My sister was a godsend,” Walker continued, revealing that JenniMay opted to move back home for the last two years of their mom’s life to be her primary caregiver. “That was an unbelievably huge help for all of us. My sister was there constantly, just massaging my mom, watching shows with my mom, playing jazz music, FaceTiming me multiple times a week. But so many families don’t have that.”

Walker said one of the reasons he’s so happy to support the Alzheimer’s Association’s work, serving with his wife Cassandra on the host committee for the upcoming event, is that in addition to funding research grants for finding solutions to the disease, from medicine to lifestyle changes, they’re also focused on providing relief for caregivers.

The Dance to End ALZ, which has raised over $1.8 million since 2017, will be emceed by Hallmark’s Jonathan Bennett and Melissa Peterman, stars of the upcoming “Finding Mr. Christmas” reality competition on Hallmark+. The event will feature a bevy of artists providing music throughout the night as supporters dance and hobnob with many of Hallmark’s top stars, including Benjamin Ayres, Paul Campbell, Sarah Drew, Kristoffer Polaha, and Erin Cahill in addition to Walker, Williams, and DeLoach.

Walker’s dad will attend, too, and the actor told Heavy he’s sure his mom will be there in spirit.

“She was my creative muse,” he said. “She was the one that got me into acting. So here
she is now, you know, looking down from above and seeing what we’re doing. She was queen of the dance floor. We couldn’t get her off the dance floor when we were at parties and weddings and everything!”

Even toward the end of her life, Walker told Heavy, music could still stir something in his mom.

“That was the last thing to go,” he said. “We could put her up to a piano — she was immobile, but her hands, her fingers were still working, and she could still play music. It was amazing. And then (later), we’d play her favorite jazz songs, and she would just tap her one finger, and just tap to the beat.”

“So we’re just gonna dance and and have a great time on their behalf,” Walker said of honoring his mom and others at the October 27 event. “Celebrate those lives that we’ve we’ve lost, and celebrate the caregivers. And just, you know, take this opportunity to educate and hopefully raise a whole bunch of money.”

A limited number of tickets and sponsored tables are still available for the Dance Party to End ALZ, and those who can’t attend in person can still show their support through online donations and by following the social media hashtag #Dance2EndALZ.

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