LOS ANGELES — For more than five decades, friendship has bonded Michele Cruz and Angela DeCuir — although as Cruz recalls it, their first encounter at the age of 2 was a bit of a rough start.

“We were fighting over a phone, and she bit my cheek,” Cruz said.

Fifty-six years later, they’re still laughing and reminiscing.

“I remember going to the Eagle Rock Plaza together,” Cruz recalled.

“That’s exactly what I was gonna say,” DeCuir added.

“And we saw ‘Jaws.’ Do you remember that?” Cruz asked.

Memories are something they treasure, especially now that they know what the absence of that looks like.

“Dementia of Alzheimer’s is a thief; it just takes all the memories,” DeCuir said, wiping her tears.

Both their mothers were diagnosed with Alzheimer’s a few years ago after telltale symptoms.

DeCuir’s mom experienced “disorientation” and “a little bit of paranoia.” And Cruz recalls a dinner with her mother that revealed the struggle ahead.

DeCuir’s mom died a few years ago. Cruz’s mom lives in a nursing facility. Alzheimer’s has robbed her of the ability to walk and speak.

“I go every Saturday to see my mom, and it really breaks my heart,” she said crying. “I just crawl in bed next to her and just lay next to her.”

“It’s such an unfair disease, it really is,” DeCuir said through tears.

Almost two-thirds of people with Alzheimer’s are women according to the Alzheimer’s Association. That’s why the Cleveland Clinic created the Women’s Alzheimer’s Movement Prevention Center. Dr. Jessica Caldwell is the director.

“We focus on helping women to make these changes that might impact their brain in a way that means they develop dementia later or never at all, because they are making changes before there is any memory problem or disease going on in the brain,” Caldwell said.

Forty percent of current Alzheimer’s cases could have been prevented, according to the CDC. That’s why women like Cruz and DeCuir go to the Las Vegas clinic’s center once a year. After all, they both have a family history of the disease, and are at 1.5 higher risk because they are women of color, according to the Alzheimer’s Association.

Caldwell explained that “not having as great access to health care, having lived in places that are food deserts, where you don’t necessarily have the same choices available to you when it comes to healthy eating, [and] reduced opportunities for educational advancement” are some of the reasons for the higher risk.

That is why Cruz and DeCuir now share their story and follow doctor’s orders for physical exercise, healthy eating and staying socially connected.