The 68-year-old 'Die Hard' actor suffers from frontotemporal dementia.
Bruce Willis is surrounded by love.
The 68-year-old actor's wife, Emma Heming Willis, took to Instagram to share a beautiful story about how the couple's 9-year-old daughter, Evelyn, is offering her support amid her dad's battle with frontotemporal dementia.
"So I have to tell you this story, and I'm going to try and do it without crying," Emma said in a series of videos on Monday. "Because when Evelyn told me this story, I was an absolute puddle."
Emma, who also shares 11-year-old daughter Mabel Willis with the Die Hard star, relayed that Evelyn had approached her to ask if she was aware that people with dementia "can become severely dehydrated." When asked how she knew about that issue, Evelyn said that she had used her free time in school to research "fun facts about dementia."
"Now, that's not funny, but it's kind of funny," Emma noted. "And she really is her father's child because these two love some random facts. So I said to her, 'Evelyn, we will always make sure daddy has a bottle of water in hand. Thank you for letting me know. But that is the most loving and compassionate thing that you can do is to be curious and educate yourself on your dad's disease.'"
In another video shared, the 44-year-old model reposted a clip from an Instagram Live she did with speech language pathologist Adria Thompson, offering additional information on dementia.
"On behalf of the person you're caring for that has dementia, whether they can express it or not -- I want to say thank you," the message read. "Thank you for loving them, thank you for spending time to educate yourself about dementia. Because that is the most compassionate thing that you can do by having more insight into their world and the life they are experiencing that they can't always express."
In addition to Evelyn and Mabel, the actor is also dad to three adult children -- Rumer Willis, 34, Scout Willis, 31, and Tallulah Willis, 29 -- with ex-wife, Demi Moore.
Scout responded to Emma's sweet story, commenting, "Omg Evelyn!!!!!!! that story made me a puddle of tenderness!"
The blended family has continued to keep a united front in celebrating milestones and sharing information about the action star's condition.
The family announced in February that Bruce's condition has progressed to frontotemporal dementia, also known as FTD, nearly one year after first revealing that he would be stepping away from acting following his aphasia diagnosis, which was "impacting his cognitive abilities."
In a joint statement (via the Association for Frontotemporal Degeneration organization) they called it "a cruel disease."
"As a family, we wanted to take this opportunity to thank you all for the outpouring of love and compassion for Bruce over the past ten months," the statement read. "Your generosity of spirit has been overwhelming, and we are tremendously grateful for it. For your kindness, and because we know you love Bruce as much as we do, we wanted to give you an update."
According to the Alzheimer's Association, FTD "refers to a group of disorders caused by progressive nerve cell loss in the brain's frontal lobes (the areas behind your forehead) or its temporal lobes (the regions behind your ears). The association also says nerve cell damage caused by FTD can lead to "loss of function in these brain regions, which variably cause deterioration in behavior, personality and/or difficulty with producing or comprehending language."
At the time of the actor's aphasia diagnosis last year, a source told ET that he had been "struggling for quite some time."
"Bruce has been struggling for quite some time. He has tried to keep his health struggles private, but last year, his health started declining more. He made a plan to make a bunch of movies and do as much as he could career wise, so that he could retire and take care of his family."
Last week, Emma announced that she has started a wellness brand, Make Time Wellness, focused on brain health.
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