Model Barbara Smith, known simply as B. Smith, remembers the moment she received her Alzheimer’s diagnosis four years ago and the tears she cried over it. Smith tries to hold on to most memories she has — even heart-breaking moments such as that — because soon there will come a time when this progressive neurological disorder robs her of those memories. In spite of the daunting road ahead, Smith and her husband Dan Gasby have refused to let anything get in the way of making new memories.

“I had tears in my eyes,” Smith told TODAY's Al Roker in regard to receiving her diagnosis. “But at the same time I also said, ‘I’m not going to give to it, I am going to fight.’”

Though Smith and Gasby have been coping with her diagnosis for the past four years, the severity of her condition came full circle last November. Smith was supposed to get on a bus for the Hamptons, but ended up wandering around New York City for more than 17 hours in a disoriented state. Although Smith only ended up suffering a few blisters on her feet and requiring a full day of rest to recuperate, both she and her husband knew how bad the situation could’ve turned out.

“I deal with it in a practical way,” she said. “I know that I’ve got a problem. Sometimes it makes me teary. But because I have great support with my husband and my family, you know, I’m doing fine. I’m doing really good.”

Smith has teamed up with the Brain Health Registry so that people will know just how important cognitive tests and Alzheimer’s research is for current and future patients, especially among minorities who are twice as likely to develop the disease compared to white people, but less likely to get diagnosed.