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Stokoe recalls that he and Ruth enjoyed working on Sign Language Studies together after his retirement.
Ruth double-checked everything, her own work as well as minemaybe triple-checked. So we complemented each other. I
was the adventurous one who liked to get on with it. She was the one who made sure we were going the right way and doing the right things in the right places.
After awhile, since Ruth was so busy and I was always the earlier riser in the house, I began to make breakfast for us.
Eventually, it reached a point where I took overmuch of the cooking. Ruth worked in the office until I called her upstairs to eat. We had a very nice little arrangement, dividing the housework and the publishing work in a very happy fashion.
Also, Ruth maintained a pretty heavy schedule as a docent at the National Gallery, so I actually had more free time than she did. But their pleasure in working together at home lasted for only three years. Early in 1987 Ruth began to exhibit symptoms of
Alzheimer's disease. Bill recalls that she made a serious clerical error in the family checking account this was so unlike her that he was at a loss to understand it. Then one day Ruth admitted having what she described to her husband as "blackouts" at the
National Gallery.
Bill Stokoe was devastated. He channeled all his intellectual and emotional energy into learning as much as he could about
Alzheimer's disease. "There were very bad times" he recalls. "When the disease was first coming on and we didn't know what was the matter, Ruth would fly off the handle and get angry. I'd get angry back. Even after Ruth was diagnosed, she would have violent episodes and the doctor finally prescribed Haldol. Ruth knew what she was losing she was aware that her world was coming apart."7
Stokoe began to look at nursing homes for his wife but decided to care for her himself as long as he could. "After forty-five years" he says, "it was better for both of us to stay together for as long as possible With the same dedication he had applied to his work at Gallaudet, he made life for the two of them as satisfying and comfortable as he could. The onset of the disease

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