Reagan Bonds Despite Alzheimer's Haze

May 10, 2003 -- As the shadows of Alzheimer's disease were moving in, former President Ronald Reagan's memories managed to peek through the clouds just for a moment.

"Your flip turn did it," he told his son Ron. "If it hadn't been for that flip turn, yes, we were even."

The comment caused the son to flash back more than 30 years, and inspired him to produce an article, "My Father's Memories," for the current issue of Esquire magazine.

"What was striking to me about this whole thing was just the resilience of this memory that he had that involved a swimming race we had … literally decades earlier, in which we raced each other and I beat him for the first time," the son told ABCNEWS' Diane Sawyer. "I was 12, he was 59 at that time, and I had been on a swim team. I had learned how to do a flip turn, which you've seen swimmers do in the Olympics, or whatever.

"That was not something that he did," he continued. "He was more old school, and it wouldn't have done any good on the river anyway where he used to do most of his swimming. … That provided a useful asterisk for him. It was sort of like the Roger Maris 61 home runs. You know, I won because I did the flip turn."

Ron Reagan referred to Roger Maris' eclipsing of Babe Ruth's single-season home run record in 1961. The record carried an asterisk because the schedule included more games in Maris' season than in Ruth's season.

‘Tough to See Him Like That’

As the former president's mental condition worsens, such memories occasionally shine through, his son told ABCNEWS' Good Morning America this past week. But there's also darkness and frustration.

"It's hard, of course," Ron Reagan said. "And it's not the way you'd want it for him, because physically he's still quite rugged. He's [got] quite a full head of hair and everything at 92 years old. … It's tough to see him like that."

It's also been tough on his mother, Nancy Reagan, he said.

"I think she's come a long way, actually, over the years with his disease," Ron Reagan said. "I think it's very difficult at first, particularly when the … person who has Alzheimer's is just slipping into the shadows, as you say. There's a period of denial, and even some anger in a way at the unfairness of the situation. But I think she's made her peace with it now."