Our Story

A letter from our founder, Elizabeth Humphreys-

In December 2010, I was in the kitchen with my mother preparing for the holidays when I realized something was wrong. She could no longer follow a familiar family recipe. One she had made for years without thinking. There had been small signs before such as her repeating herself and subtle shifts in her personality. But until that moment, I had brushed them off as normal aging. That day, I couldn’t. She was scared and I’d never seen her terrified like that in my whole life. It was a day I will never forget.. At first, I feared she had suffered a mild stroke, especially with a facial tremor that seemed to coincide with the changes. But the years that followed were something far more devastating.

From that day forward, everything changed. At just 30 years old, with two young children of my own, I suddenly found myself responsible for my mother’s life. What should have been a season of raising my family became a parallel journey into caregiving, one I was completely unprepared for. It took us three long years to receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. In the meantime, we endured multiple misdiagnoses, each one adding confusion, frustration, and heartbreak. There was no roadmap. No clear guidance. I felt like I was navigating a life no one else around me understood.

The weight of it all was overwhelming. I was trying to hold together my young family while meeting the growing needs of my mother, and it left me mentally and emotionally exhausted. I couldn’t turn to friends for support. No one else my age was facing this. It was deeply isolating and there were days I genuinely wondered if we were both losing our minds. I spent countless hours in doctors’ offices, juggling crying babies and a frightened, disoriented mother. I struggled to reconcile the woman I had always known with the changes unfolding in front of me. And perhaps most painful of all, I knew she felt like a burden. Watching her carry that guilt broke my heart in ways I can’t fully describe.

For a long time, I refused to accept what was happening. I was determined to find a solution; a treatment, a diet, anything that might stop the disease. Acceptance felt like giving up. It wasn’t until a few years after her diagnosis that I reached out to the Alzheimer’s Association. That decision changed everything. Through that connection, I found community, and, for the first time, a sense of healing. I was invited to chair the Young Professionals Board for the MidSouth Chapter in Nashville, where I raised over $12,000 in my first year. More importantly, I found others like me, young caregivers navigating the same impossible reality. I realized I was not alone, and I realized something else: there were countless others living this same story.

That realization led me to found Mind What Matters. While we may not yet be able to save those diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, we can—and must—support the caregivers who walk alongside them. Too often, caregivers sacrifice their own health, well-being, and future in the process. Mind What Matters exists to change that.

Our mission is to serve this new generation of caregivers. To reduce their burden, improve their quality of life, and ensure they are not forgotten in the fight against this disease. We are equally committed to advancing education and awareness around brain health, with the goal of preventing as many cases of Alzheimer’s and cognitive decline as possible. They say when your heart breaks, something else pours out of it. Watching Alzheimer’s slowly take my mother has broken my heart again and again. Mind What Matters is what has poured out of that heartbreak, and it has become one of the greatest purposes of my life.