It really got the point across of connecting to your roots and making sure that they live on for generations. She definitely radiated a lot of energy and I think my siblings and I got that from her.TV: One of the themes of this episode is really about Georgie learning to embrace her Latinx heritage. The moments she was very sweet, it was adorable, but really she was usually the one who was very loud and the life of the house. What are some of the things you'd want to share about your grandmother, that you'd want the world to know about? My advice would be to spend a lot of time with them and take in every moment because you never know when something can happen and so you don't want to have any regrets at the end. What advice would you have for others who have a family member with Alzheimer's disease? They had written a card sending all their prayers and there was a lot of support from everyone, so that made it a lot better. But everyone at "Dancing with the Stars," the producers and cast and everybody were really sweet. And then a few days later, it hit me and of course it hit when the cameras were on, so that was definitely really hard. So when they told me, I was in shock, I guess. I don't think it hit me, really, just because I had been traveling so much I'd gotten used to not seeing her as much. Nobody had told me, but when I came home my dad sat me down with everybody and told me the news. So the day after she had passed, I got to come home. When I did find out I got to fly home for the week. You found out about your grandmother's death while you were very much in the public light in the middle of your run on "Dancing with the Stars." What was that like for you? When things were getting really bad, I was away on "Dancing with the Stars." My mom would come up pretty often, my brother's in college, my sister works, my dad works, so everyone was separated and that was hard because at times like that you definitely want to be together. It made us really grateful for the family we have now and making sure that we took in every moment. She was my dad's mother and he's kind of the tough guy of the family so to see him so sad over it, which is completely understandable, that was really hard. How did your grandmother's illness affect your family and what was that like for you to watch? Laurie Hernandez with her grandmother, Brunilda Hernandez I remember my brother and I didn't understand so we'd look at each other and give her different answers every time to see how she would react but as soon as we figured out what happened, it made sense as to why she kept asking these things. She asked me how my day was at least six times one day. She would ask the same questions over and over again. What were some of her initial symptoms of Alzheimer's? That was really comforting to know that she saw what I did and that she was hopefully proud of it. Through the Olympics, I could feel that she was watching, and when I came back, the people who had worked with her created a little book for her of all the meets that I did with pictures and descriptions - that way she could go through it. She had stomach cancer as well as Alzheimer's and the two hit pretty quickly. We'd hoped she would get better soon but we did see her spiral downward throughout the year. I was doing a lot of competitions throughout the year and I wasn't home as much as I usually am.
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